Annie's Heart
by imtrashandimproud
Summary: This is my first ever Fanfiction so constructive criticism would be nice. I'm a huge shipper of EreAnnie so that's gonna be the subject of this fic. It may get a little smutty later on but for now I'm keeping it PG. I'm trying to write this while keeping in mind the events of the actual story, as canonically accurate as possible. Essentially, this is all my headcanon. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Annie Leonhardt never understood her father's ideology. She never saw a reason to the way he thought, or his deep-rooted hatred toward humankind. For sixteen years of her life, she felt like she barely knew anything about him.

But she did know that she wanted to please him.

So she put up with the years of rigorous training, both mental and physical, in hopes that one day her father would be proud of her. She honed her hand-to-hand combat skills, learned her father's style, trained relentlessly, and built up an emotional wall that kept people from getting close to her. And when it came time to assume her role in the plan, she enlisted in the Trainee Corps with the intention of graduating in the top ten, so she could join the Military Police and infiltrate Wall Sina.

Annie joined the Military's 104th Cadets. It was the largest group of people she had ever needed to interact with, and she was going to have to do so for three years. She was not going to enjoy this.

Annie had never been good at dealing with people. She was awkward, apathetic, distant, unapproachable, and exclusionary, traits her father had drilled into her personality from years of confinement from the rest of her village. As far as she could remember, she had never made a single friend in her life.

Not that she minded. Friends would just get in the way of her mission.

* * *

Commandant Keith Shadis seemed to have it out for Eren. He seemed to relish in embarrassing the zealous cadet, so it was only natural that when Shadis split the class up into pairs to practice disarming a knife-wielding opponent, Eren got stuck with Reiner. Reiner was the bulkiest, buffest, muscliest member of the class, and although Eren wasn't exactly a twig himself, he was still dwarfed by the blonde Hercules. Even if the two of them were friends, Eren's fear of being steamrolled and flattened didn't lessen.

Reiner charged at Eren, practice knife in hand, yelling out a ferocious battle cry.

Eren ran away.

"Yeager, you worthless piece of shit," Shadis's voice rang out like a gunshot, "Turn around and fight your opponent!"

It took a while, but Eren and Reiner gradually slowed down.

"You're thinking about this all wrong." Reiner said, encouraging Eren once they had stopped, "It isn't a matter of who's stronger, it comes down to who can use their strength better. Focus on using my own momentum against me."

Eren inhaled deeply and nodded.

Reiner raised the wooden training knife again and charged, and this time, Eren was ready. Eren grounded himself, planting both feet into the ground, and as soon as Reiner was within reach, he grabbed Reiner's shirt and ducked slightly, allowing Reiner's forward motion to propel him over his shoulder. Reiner hit the ground hard.

Eren looked down at his hand in disbelief. "Wow, it worked!" He stretched the hand out to help Reiner back onto his feet. "Sorry. I'm not good at holding back."

Reiner got to his feet and held out the dagger. "Now it's your turn to be the rogue."

Eren looked down at the knife and furrowed his brow. He didn't see a point to this exercise. "This training doesn't make any sense. We're training to fight Titans, not people. Besides, only an idiot would fight barehanded."

"We're soldiers." Reiner said simply, "Sometimes we won't have a choice. The enemy comes in all shapes and sizes, and we have to be ready for anything."

Reiner's gaze drifted to the side and something caught his eye. He pointed subtly at a short, sulky looking blonde girl with blue eyes. "Hey, look over there."

Eren looked over at the girl. He recognized her, and combed through his brain for her name. "That's Annie, I think. All she ever does is slack off."

A manic grin spread across Reiner's face. "Let's go teach her a lesson." Reiner grabbed Eren's shoulders and began steering him towards Annie.

* * *

"Commandant's message not getting through to you?" Annie recognized the voice. She turned to see Reiner grinning at her. Another boy was standing next to her, a shorter boy with dark hair and bright green eyes.

"Unless you want to get any shorter than you already are," Reiner continued, "I suggest you think back to why you joined in the first place."

The other boy piqued up. "Hey, no need to be so harsh."

 _Classic Reiner_ , Annie thought, very annoyed. _Being an obnoxious tin soldier to impress his comrades._

"Whoa, you made her really pissed." The green-eyed boy commented to Reiner.

And then, Reiner shoved Eren towards Annie.

"M-Me?" Eren stammered.

Annie took up her usual fighting stance. Weight evenly distributed, fists balled in front of her face. Just like her father showed her.

Eren looked back at her. "Okay. You know the drill, Annie." Indeed she did. "Here I come!"

* * *

Eren charged. Annie saw everything, every body motion, every shift in weight. She sidestepped and swung out in an arc with her leg. The ball of her foot connected with Eren's shin, and down the boy went. It was barely a fight.

Gripping his shin, Eren winced in pain on the ground.

"Can I go now?" Annie asked, brushing strands of her blonde hair out of her face.

"No, you know the drill. Take the knife."

A sigh escaped Annie's lips. She walked over to Eren, who had stood up again, grabbed his wrist, and kicked his legs out from under him, sending him to the ground once more.

"Now it's your turn." Annie said, tossing the knife to Reiner.

"Oh, no," Reiner said, looking scared, "I don't think that's necessary"

"I thought you wanted to teach her a lesson, Reiner." Said Eren contemptuously, still on the ground.

Reiner swallowed his fear. "Yeah, I was." He gripped the knife and charged. "Here I come!"

Too easy. Annie grabbed Reiner's wrist, twisted the knife out of his hand, and kicked his legs out. Reiner landed on the ground in a similar position as Eren.

"That's an amazing technique," Eren said in awe. Something inside Annie's gut buzzed around. "Who taught it to you?"

Annie didn't answer for awhile. She was still trying to figure out why her stomach was buzzing. "My father."

"It's incredible. Reiner's twice as big as you and you sent him flying." Eren's eyes were filled with wonder and respect.

Annie could feel her face getting hot. She looked down at the ground, and the faintest smile crept onto her face. The buzzing in her stomach increased. She brushed hair out of her face again. "You know, if you like that technique so much," Annie muttered, "I could teach it to you."

Annie's stomach tingled again at the thought of training Eren one-on-one. Sparring, especially with her particular combat style, often meant that people participating got... Close. Annie felt something inside, a desire to be close to him, feel his body's warmth.

"That sounds great!"

Annie looked up to see Eren smiling. _He has a nice smile,_ she thought to herself.

* * *

Annie looked down at the food on her plate and stirred it around. She wasn't hungry. She was too preoccupied with her thoughts to be hungry. Thoughts of home, thoughts of her mission, thoughts of her father... Thoughts of _him_ , too.

Eren Yeager, the boy who made her stomach feel fuzzy. With his chocolate, scruffy hair, his goofy smile, his vibrant, determined, green eyes... Eyes that masked pain, grief, anger.

Eren Yeager had gone through hell. Annie heard the hushed whispers around the barracks before, she knew he used to live in Shiganshina, but so did Armin, and Armin's eyes didn't mask the same emotions that Eren's did.

 _That's an amazing technique,_ Eren had told her, _It's incredible._ She had been praised for her skills before, with no effect. So why did Eren's words make her blush?

Annie had a faint thought. _Is this what it feels like to have a crush?_ She had ever had a crush on anybody before.

That startling question gave way to another. _Do I have a crush on Yeager?_

Her thoughts were interrupted. "Are you gonna eat that, or are you just gonna stir it around?"

Annie turned. _Oh,_ she thought, _Sasha._ Annie pushed her plate towards the brunette girl, whose smile grew so wide it was a little bit unsettling.

"Wow, thanks Annie!" Sasha remarked.

"Whatever." Annie muttered as Sasha wolfed down the food.

Off behind them and to the left, Jean was shouting again. Probably at Eren. Those two were always butting heads. Annie turned her head slightly to look at them.

"I don't give a damn about your shirt! I'm so jealous!" Jean's grip was tightened on the cloth hanging from Eren's chest, and Eren looked both bewildered and aggressive.

Eren gripped Jean's hand and yanked him by the wrist towards him, and then swept out the taller horse-faced boy with one well-placed kick.

Annie recognized the move. She had just used it on Eren a few hours ago. Annie's heart beat a little faster at the sight of Eren using a technique she had showed him. She took it as a massive compliment.

"What the hell was that?" Jean asked.

Eren glared over him. "A technique I learned the hard way while you were screwing about playing MP." Annie's stomach felt fuzzy again.

"You're not a soldier," Eren followed up, "You're a disgrace."

The door creaked open. "Anybody care to explain that noise I just heard?" Shadis's voice rasped against the interior of the mess hall.

Silence.

Mikasa raised her hand. "Sasha passed gas, sir."

Sasha looked mortified, and the rest of the cadets did their best to contain their laughter. Even Annie thought it was funny.

"For God's sake, woman, control yourself." Shadis said, slamming the door shut again.

After dinner time was up, the group of kids gathered around the field for a night outside. Annie sat alone, silently watching the others laugh and have fun. Reiner, and Jean were armwrestling while Bertholdt and Marco respectively were cheering them on, (even though Reiner was clearly holding back,) Ymir was flirting with an oblivious Krista, Franz and Hannah were holding hands, clearly thinking that nobody could see, and Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were talking amongst themselves.

Annie felt slightly annoyed when she saw how close Eren and Mikasa were. Uncertain of the reason, she kept glancing over periodically. Every time Eren would meet her gaze, she would drop it again, wait awhile, and look back at him.

"Hey, Annie," a cheery voice behind her rang out, "whatcha looking at?"

Annie nearly jumped. "Oh! Uh... Nothing." Annie looked at the ground again.

Mina Carolina sat down beside her.

Annie liked Mina. Or at least, she liked Mina a lot more than she liked the other cadets. Mina was cheerful, but never tried to force her cheeriness and optimism onto others. Nor did she ever try to encourage Annie to talk, which Annie was appreciative of. She wasn't sure if Mina thought of her as a friend or not, but appreciated her presence nonetheless.

Mina shrugged. "Okay, then."

"Mina?" Annie asked, still looking at the ground?

"Hm?" Mina cocked her head to the side.

"Does anybody ever make your stomach feel fuzzy, or make you blush?"

Mina thought for a minute and looked up. "Well, maybe Nac." She smiled sheepishly. "But that's just because I have a little crush on him."

"I see." Annie thought to herself.

"Why?" Mina asked.

It was a while before Annie answered. She was working her brain around it, it was pretty much confirmed: She had a crush on Eren Yeager.

Finally, she replied. "No reason."

* * *

That night, lying in his bunk, Eren tried to sort through his thoughts. He had noticed back on the field that Annie kept glancing over at him, and then pretended not to have been. It made him wonder. Annie was cute, in her own sulky way. Eren liked the way her hair parted; it was uneven and yet perfect. Her expressionless eyes were hiding something, some emotions that she had repressed deep within her psyche.

He knew because he repressed a lot of emotions that he tried not to let resurface, either.

Eren hadn't really had any experience with girls, apart from Mikasa, but she was like family to him so it hardly counted. He knew next to nothing about them.

"Eren?" Armin said.

"Huh?" Eren replied. He realized that he had spaced out thinking about Annie, and snapped back into reality.

"What's bugging you? You've been awfully distracted today."

"Oh," Eren replied, "It's nothing. Just thinking about stuff."

"Is it about your mom?" The coconut-headed blonde boy asked.

 _No_ , Eren thought.

"Yeah." He said.

"Don't worry about it that much." Armin yawned, "We're doing more training with the 3DM gear tomorrow, once we master how to use it, you'll be able to kill all the titans you want."

Eren smiled at that. "Sounds good." He said quietly.

He felt himself drifting to sleep. His thoughts went back to Annie. Her blue-gray eyes, blonde hair, the faint smile she gave when he complimented her... _She looks so cute when she smiles,_ he thought. _I wish she would do it more often._


	2. Chapter 2

So here's the second chapter. I got a positive review, so thanks for that, made my day. AGain, this is my first fic so I'm sorry. Plus Annie is really hard to read and therefore, hard to write. I'm doing my best, guys. :P Here goes:

* * *

Chapter 2:

 _Eren was back in Shiganshina, thrown over Hannes's shoulder as the man ran away. He could feel the tears rolling down his eyes as he screamed._

 _"Hannes! It's gonna get her!" He begged the Garrison soldier. "Hannes, we have to go back for her! We can't leave her!"_

 _Hannes kept running, ignoring Eren's pleas._

 _"Hannes, please! Save my mom!" Eren screamed, with the desperation of a dying animal._

 _Eren could see the titan's eyes continuing to watch the them bolt off in the opposite direction. The blank smile, ear to ear, was still plastered across its otherwise emotionless face. It was standing at the rubble of Eren's house._

No, _Eren thought._ Please, no.

 _The titan stooped down low and brushed away the rubble that was trapping Eren's mother as if it was made of dust._

 _"Stop it!" Eren screamed as the titan picked up the frail figure of a screaming Carla Yeager. "Let her GO!"_

 _The titan, as if mocking him, continued to smile its stupid grin and lifted Eren's mother up._

 _Eren could see her flailing around and hitting the titan's hand, desperate to be released from it's grasp. Unaffected, the titan raised it's other hand and brought it to its screaming victim's upper half._

 _"NO! STOP IT!" Eren begged. But it was too late. The titan had snapped his mother's back._

 _Eren could feel his heart crawling up into his throat. He watched in horror as the gargantuan monster brought up his mother's limp body to its mouth._

 _It bit down._

* * *

Eren sat up in his bed in a cold sweat. He had that nightmare again. He could feel a tear on his cheek and swung his legs over his bed to stand up. Fresh air would help, he figured. He pushed open the door, slowly enough that it wouldn't creak, and stepped outside into the chilly night air.

His feet led him down the ramp and into the training yard. Eren collapsed into a heap on the cold ground and looked up at the stars. He liked to pretend that his mother was among them somehow, watching over him and smiling, but he knew in his heart that it was childish.

 _Because Mom's dead._ He thought to himself. _Mom's dead and no amount of wishing will ever bring her back._

 _You can't change the past. All you can do is let it drive you now._

Eren gazed over to where the girls' cabins were and thought again about Annie. Something about her drew Eren to her, like a bee to a flower. There was something so mysterious about her, so... Intense. It gave Eren a bit of a rush. He thought back to training earlier. Though she had thrown him to the ground, there was something exhilarating about sparring with her.

 _Annie Leonhardt._ He thought. _What a beautiful girl._

Realization hit him like a brick. Eren brought his palms up to his eyes in resignation. _I have a crush on Annie._

* * *

A short distance away, Annie lay awake in her own bed, unable to sleep. It had been two weeks since she met Eren Yeager, and during those two weeks, he was all she could think about. Her thoughts of him made her unusually energetic. What was the word? Giddy? Annie wasn't sure whether or not she liked this feeling. It was her first time ever having a crush on anyone and didn't know what to think. Where was she supposed to go from here? Was it going to be like in fairy tales, where the prince and princess ride off happily into the sunset? Or was it going to be short lived, meeting its end in the mouth of a Titan?

Annie sighed quietly. She thought back to what her father had told her. Shortly before she left for the Trainee Corps, her father had a change of heart in regards to what he wanted for her. He must have realized all the grief he had put her through.

 _Annie, I'm sorry._ He had told her, _I don't expect you to forgive me, so just... Please just never give in. Even if the whole world hates you, never give in! They won't understand, but I promise, I always will... Your father will always be by your side. Promise me... Promise me you'll come home!_

Nothing about the mission. Nothing about the other Shifters. Just an apology, reassurance, and a request.

It was the closest he had ever come to saying "I love you."

She had promised, in the end. She promised that if it was a choice between the mission and coming home, she would choose coming home.

 _I wonder if you would understand this,_ Annie thought, _these feelings I have for Eren._

The mess hall the next morning was unusually cheery. Annie walked over to where Mina was sitting. "Why's everybody in such a good mood?"

"Oh, good morning, Annie!" Mina said, "Shadis is sick today, so we have the day off!"

"I see." Annie said simply. Turning to the left, she saw the serving station. She walked over to where the line ended and faced forward, bored.

"Hey, Annie." A voice said behind her. Annie turned to see a familiar pair of happy emerald eyes and mess of brown hair.

Annie could feel her face getting hot again. "Oh... Hi, Eren." Annie looked down in embarrassment. The tingling in her stomach was back.

"How'd you sleep?" Eren asked, making small talk.

Annie hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night, having been kept awake by thoughts of her father, as well as of Eren. "I didn't, really. I had a lot on my mind."

"Yeah," Eren replied, looking off to his right and bringing his hand up to the back of his neck. The gesture compressed his muscles and flexed his arms. Annie could see the definition in his biceps, his developed body. "I didn't really get much sleep either."

"Oh." Annie muttered. "Why's that?"

The shine in Eren's eyes dulled instantly and the smile faded from his mouth. Suddenly, he seemed a million miles away. "I have nightmares."

"What about?" Annie asked, earning a frown from Eren. Annie realized that it may have been a bit personal of a question. "Uh, I mean... If it's okay for me to ask, that is."

Eren looked back at Annie and gave a slight smile. "No, it's okay, it's just... A little difficult for me to talk about, is all."

It was Annie's turn to get food. The server scooped a small amount of stew and poured it into a bowl, and stuck a loaf of hard bread inside. He passed the bowl to Annie.

"Hey, why don't you sit with me, Mikasa, and Armin today?

Annie could feel herself blushing again. "Are you sure?"

Eren smiled and grabbed his own bowl. "Of course."

Annie could feel a hand on her wrist and realized that Eren had grabbed her. Suddenly, she felt the need to take off her hoodie. The temperature seemed to have jumped twenty degrees. Warmth spread from her wrist and through the rest of the her body, settling in the middle of her chest, right where her heart was. Her mind went fuzzy.

 _Eren is holding my hand._ She thought.

He led her to a table where Mikasa and Armin were already sitting.

"I brought Annie today, she's gonna sit with us."

"Hi, Annie." Armin smiled from where he was sitting. Annie had regained her composure and managed to nod, acknowledging Armin's greeting.

Mikasa, on the other hand, did not seem as open. Annie could feel Mikasa's eyes digging deep into her. She felt self-conscious.

Mikasa turned back to her bowl. "Hey." She said simply.

Annie breathed a silent sigh of relief. Eren released her wrist, much to Annie's disappointment, and sat down.

"So, uh... Where are you from, Annie?" Armin asked.

Annie felt uneasy talking much about herself. "The same village as Bertholdt and Reiner," she said simply.

"So you've seen them too, then?" Eren asked. Annie turned, and the boy had gone from his cheerful self to a much more downcast, serious-looking self. "The titans, I mean."

"Yeah," Annie answered. "I have."

Eren looked down at his untouched food. Something was taking him back to Shiganshina, she knew. She wondered again, faintly, what had happened to him. He looked so pained, so distraught. Annie wanted to help him. She wanted to reach out and place her hand over his, tell him that it was okay, and that they weren't going to hurt him anymore.

But she couldn't lie, not to _him._ The mission, her mission, had no room for sparing humankind from any more grief. And, like it or not, that included Eren.

So she dipped her spoon into her bowl and took a bite of her stew. Bland, flavorless stew.

"Eren," Armin implored, "you're getting worked up again. Please calm down."

"I'm sorry, Armin." Eren apologized. He turned again to Annie. "So, what branch do you want to join when we graduate, Annie?"

Annie thought for a minute. "The Military Police, probably. You guys?"

"The Scouts," Eren answered automatically, smiling again.

Annie looked across the table at Armin and Mikasa. "Wherever Eren goes, I go." Mikasa said simply. Annie wondered if there was anything more to their pseudo-familial relationship, and felt annoyed. Jealousy perhaps?

"I'm joining the Scouts too." Armin answered.

This boggled Annie slightly. She could understand an ace like Mikasa joining the scouts, but Armin? "Don't you think your intellect will be of more use within the walls? Why don't you join the Garrison?"

Armin looked at his own food. "I'm tired of other people sacrificing themselves in my stead."

"I see." Annie replied.

The four ate the rest of breakfast in silence. When they went to get up though, Eren tapped on Annie's shoulder and motioned for Armin and Mikasa to go on ahead.

 _What does he want to talk to me about?_ Annie wondered. Her heart fluttered inside her chest, and she hoped she wasn't blushing.

"Annie?" Eren asked.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Well, I was wondering, since we have the day off... Do you maybe want to train me today?"

Annie could feel herself blushing. She was taken aback, to say the least. "Uh, yeah, sure. But why didn't you ask earlier, when Mikasa and Armin were around?"

Eren glanced at the door that his two best friends had just walked out of. "Well, you see, I was wondering if it could just be the two of us. And I knew that if I asked you in front of Mikasa and Armin, they'd want to come again too."

 _The two of us?_ Annie's heart nearly skipped a beat. She had been training Eren after dinner for a little while each day, but it was always with Mikasa and Armin around. She could feel her blushing worsen and looked at the ground. "Oh. Sure thing. If that's what you want, at least."

"It is." Eren reassured.

* * *

 _Stupid, stupid, stupid._ Eren chastised himself as Annie led him to a secluded area in the forest, one where they could train in peace and quiet. _You invite Annie to a one-on-one training session, and you don't have the slightest idea where to go from here._

Eren thought back to Marco's advice from last night, before the freckled boy had gone to sleep.

 _So wait, Eren, you like a girl?_ Marco has asked. _Is it Mikasa?_

 _No,_ Eren had replied. _But I'm not really comfortable saying who it is. Not yet, at least._

 _Well, my advice would be to think of a way to get her alone, and then open up to her._ Marco had said.

Well, Eren had gotten Annie alone. But what did "open up" mean?

The two cadets passed through the treeline and into the forest, and made it to their destination. Annie turned to face him and tugged uncomfortably at the collar of her hoodie.

"Okay," Annie said. "So you've already learned that technique I used on you the other day, so that's good..." Her voice seemed to trail off.

 _Uh oh,_ Eren thought, _did I make her feel uncomfortable by asking her to train one-on-one?_

"Well," Annie resumed, "we've gone over the basics, so let's work some more on ducking."

They went over delivering and evading punches. Annie threw jabs at Eren, who picked up rather quickly how to dodge them and use the opportunity to move towards Annie, too close for her to deliver another punch. Every time he got close, he could feel the butterflies buzzing around in his stomach as he noticed every detail of her, her movements, her grace. The way her hair fell down at the front of her hair and stuck out at wild angles in her bun, her cute, curved, funny-looking nose, her icy blue-gray eyes. The minutes turned into hours, slipping away. Eren didn't care about the time, he only cared about what he was doing right then and there, He only cared about the beautiful, deadly girl in front of her.

He stepped back and lowered his hands. "I think that's enough for one day, don't you?" He asked. "Now let's head back before the others start to get the wrong idea."

Eren didn't think Annie would be comfortable being the center of a rumor. He knew he wouldn't mind it, but he was afraid Annie wouldn't want to be around him anymore.

"Oh." Annie said simply. In her voice, was that... Disappointment?

" _Oh?_ " Eren echoed. "What's wrong?"

Annie gripped her left arm with her right hand and looked away. "Nothing."

"Annie, are you okay?" Eren asked. With a cold outward exterior like hers, Eren was sure she didn't get asked that very often.

"Yeah, fine." Annie said, still not meeting his gaze.

Eren was scared. "You're not mad at me for dragging you all the way out here, are you?" he asked.

"No," Annie said, "that's not it. Don't worry about it, okay? Don't worry about _me._ "

 _Open up to her,_ Marco told Eren.

 _Okay, here goes nothing._

Eren took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Annie," he began, "I _do_ worry about you. I want you to feel comfortable around me, comfortable enough to tell me _anything._ I wanted to be _important_ to you. And maybe that sounds stupid, but it's the truth." Eren opened his eyes, expecting to see Annie's fist heading straight for his nose, but she was blushing and looking down again.

"Why?" Annie asked. "I'm a terrible person. I've done horrible things in my life. I have secrets, Eren. Secrets that if you knew, you wouldn't like me anymore."

"I don't care." Eren said, taking a step forward and gripped her shoulders. Annie looked at him, and for once, her gaze wasn't expressionless. It was full of emotion. Fear, want, hope, regret, and a mix of other things Eren didn't recognize.

"What are you saying, Eren?" Annie pleaded.

"I'm saying I _like_ you, Annie." Eren answered automatically. "No matter _what_ your secrets are."

"Eren, NO!" Annie answered and shrugged off his shoulders, running away and bak towards the camp.

Eren looked down at the ground and felt a dull aching in his chest where the fluttering used to be. Lead where the butterflies used to be. He felt a wetness welling up in his eyes.

 _Well,_ Eren thought hollowly, _it was worth a shot._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is here. I hope this is to your guys' liking. :) It's like 30% fluff, not gonna lie, but it covers some important stuff in their developing relationship. Armin and Mina offer their input t Eren and Annie, respectively. I'm using Mina because in the manga and a little in the anime, Mina and Annie are seen sitting next to each other pretty frequently, which leads me to believe they were probably friends, so if you were wondering, that's why. Oh, I've also decided to start incorporating a little more swearing. SPOILER ALERT: this chapter is where the ship sets sail.

* * *

Chapter 3:

Annie felt horrible. She finally realized that the feelings she had for Eren were reciprocated, and rather than confessing in return, accepting his offer, and letting him become part of her _life_ , she pushed him away, just as she had pushed away everyone else who she came across. This was _Eren_. The boy who made her feel like maybe, just maybe, that she wouldn't have to be alone all her life. _Eren_ , whose compassionate eyes wore away at the emotional barrier Annie had spent years building up, begging to be let inside. Promising comfort, trust, compassion, and so many things Annie couldn't even begin to understand.

And she blew it.

The ache in Annie's stomach had ceased to go away since she had driven him away. It had been a week since then, and she had barely eaten. Her performance was becoming significantly less impressive, and she was quickly losing respect among her peers.

But worst of all... Worst of all was that she couldn't tell anyone. How could she let anybody know that she, the great and ruthless Annie Leonhardt, was weak, and sad, and hopeless?

Annie felt that if she just told someone, maybe she wouldn't have this crushing weight in the pit of her heart. But who could she tell?

The only people that she would even _consider_ telling were Bertholdt and Reiner, but if they knew that she was feeling this way they would become doubtful that she would be able to carry out their mission, maybe even call it off altogether.

Annie mulled the predicament over in her head on her bedroll in the woods. Today, and tomorrow also, were devoted a field exercise. Annie's group, composed of her, Mina, Connie, Jean, and Thomas, and two cadets she had never spoken to before, were to trek through the forest with extra 3DM gear and find another group of cadets who were unarmed. Once they found them, they were to resupply them and bring them back to the camp, killing any titans they encounter on the way. Search and rescue.

It wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that it started raining a couple of hours into the exercise and now Annie, along with everybody else, was absolutely miserable.

 _I like you, Annie. No matter what your secrets are._

No, he wouldn't have. She was a monster. If Eren knew what Annie really was, he would hate her guts. Eren had always been very adamant about his hatred of Titans.

"Hey, Annie," Mina called out. It was her turn to take watch while the others slept.

Annie turned towards the dark-haired girl. "What is it?"

"You should try to get some sleep." Mina suggested. "Sometimes it's okay to stop being a super soldier and get some rest, you know."

Annie didn't answer. Maybe... could she tell Mina? Mina wouldn't tell anyone, would she? Annie lifted her gaze to the branches of the tree she was lying under. "Mina?"

"Hm?"

"If I tell you something, will you promise not to laugh?"

Mina giggled slightly. "The queen of apathy sounds a little bit worried."

Annie scowled at the dark-haired girl.

"I won't tell a soul." Mina reassured.

"Well..." Annie said, "I have a problem. And it's a little bit embarrassing."

"That time of the month?" Mina asked.

"What?" Annie whispered, bewildered. "No, that's... No. It's not about my fucking period, Mina."

"Sorry, Annie. Just a thought." Mina apologized. "What is it, then?"

"It's a... B-boy problem." Annie muttered, looking down at the ground again.

Annie could hear Mina stifle a squeal of delight. She turned, and Mina had rushed over next to her and sat down, presumably so she could interrogate Annie. "Who is it? It'd better not be Nac because I already told you I liked him."

"It isn't Nac." Annie stated.

Mina cocked her head. "So who is it then?"

Annie could feel her face getting hot again. "It's... Eren..." She whispered quietly.

"Who?" Mina said. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Nevermind." Annie said, changing her mind. "My point is, I like him. A lot."

Mina giggled quietly again. "Nobody else seems to believe you have emotions, Annie." She grew serious again. "So what's the problem? Did you embarrass yourself in front of him? Is he not interested?"

"No... He told me he wanted to be a part of my life. I said no."

"Why?" Mina asked.

Annie thought for a second. She couldn't tell Mina about the Shifters, so how could she word this? "There are things about me I don't want him to figure out. Things that I've done in my life. I'm absolutely sure that if he ever found out, he wouldn't like me anymore. So I told him no. I didn't want to see his reaction. Because sooner or later, he's going to find out... What should I do"

"Annie..." Mina paused, choosing her words carefully. "If you're that worried that he'll find out, then it probably means you regret what you did. If you regret it that much, then whoever this guy is, he'll understand. You can cross that bridge when you come to it. It's all a matter of whether or not you think he's worth the heartbreak."

"So..." Annie asked, "should I ask if he still wants to be with me?"

"I would." Mina said, "Especially in a world where we could all die tomorrow."

Annie thought about it for a second. She knew it wasn't as simple as Mina made it sound, but she was definitely going to keep an open mind. Maybe Eren _was_ worth the heartbreak. "Thanks, Mina."

* * *

"Shouldn't you be taking advantage of your time in sickbay by catching up on your studying?" Armin asked from the bed next to Eren. The two had collided yesterday during training, when Armin's 3DM gear malfunctioned and propelled him sharply left, right into Eren. The two had fallen almost thirty feet onto the hard ground below. Armin had landed on Eren, who only survived the fall because of the Shifter abilities he didn't know he had. The two had been confined to sickbay for the rest of the week until their injuries healed.

Eren was once again lying in the bed, looking up at the ceiling with his hands folded behind his back. His textbooks on titan ecology and repair maintenance of 3DM gear lay on the foot of the mattress, untouched. Armin however, had gone through both books at least twice.

"I've got a lot on my mind." Eren said simply.

"Eren, does this have anything to do with Annie?"

Eren had thought Armin was going to piece it together. Although lacking in combat, Armin excelled at figuring things out, and the two having known each other for years only added to his understanding of Eren. "How did you know?"

Armin smiled apologetically. "Well, you only started acting weird after breakfast with Annie, and you've been getting awfully distracted since you met her."

Surprise, and slight panic, hit Eren. "Does anybody else know that that's what's been bugging me?"

"Not that I know of." Armin answered.

Eren sighed in relief. "That's good. I'd like to keep attention off of her, if possible."

"That's understandable, she doesn't seem to be too fond of dealing with people." Armin agreed. "So what's going on between the two of you?"

"Hell if I know." Eren replied, looking up at the ceiling again. "I told her how I feel, but I don't think she feels the same way."

"What makes you believe that?"

"She flat out said 'No', Armin."

"That doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't feel the same way. Sometimes people have other motives for wanting to stay out of relationships. Did she say anything else?"

Eren turned back to his best friend. "She said that she had secrets, and that if I ever found out about them I wouldn't like her anymore."

"Do you think that's true, Eren?"

"I don't care what she's done. I don't need to know about it, I know enough about Annie to make my own decision on how I feel about her."

"Yeah?" Armin asked. "Well then, tell her that."

"Yeah, right." Eren said, "She's never going to talk to me again."

Indeed, Annie had been avoiding him since he confessed his feelings. Even their regular martial arts training had ceased. Every time Eren had tried to talk to her, in the mess hall or during training, she would walk away and get lost in a crowd before Eren could get a word out. It was spreading throughout Eren like a disease. After a couple of days or so, though, Eren had decided that Annie simply didn't want anything to do with him, so he left her alone. He tried to forget about her.

But how could he?

Sure, Annie wasn't as conventionally beautiful as some of the other girls, and she sure as hell wasn't as compassionate, but there were other things that drew him to her. She was driven, determined, defiant. She wasn't going to let anything, even the whole world, get in her way.

Eren saw a lot of himself in that; maybe that, her demeanor, is what made him so instantly attracted to her.

"Seriously though, you should get reading." Armin suggested. "This information is going to help you kill titans, you know."

Eren gave a faint smile. He was grateful again for his best friend. "Yeah."

* * *

Annie's group had located the target group, and they were almsot back to the camp. Two days had been sufficient time for Annie to make up her mind. She was going to go to Eren, apologize, and ask him to be a part of her life just like he wanted to.

 _If he still wants me, that is._ Annie thought. Eren had stopped trying to talk to her a few days before the search and rescue exercise began. Annie was scared that he had given up on her, and she had blown her only chance to _finally not be so goddamn alone in the world._ She wanted to have someone who genuinely cared and wasn't hesitant to show it. Eren was like that, and could have been even more so.

Had she ended this before it began?

Eren could have been the best thing that happened to her in her entire life. Probably, he already was. And she may have blown it sky-high.

"Hey, Ms. Grumps-a-lot," Jean snapped from off to Annie's right, "focus. We're almost back to camp, and if we're the first team back, we get special privileges. I don't know about you, but I want to rub it in the rest of the Trainee's faces when they see that we're already here. Especially Yeager."

"Eren's not doing this exercise." Connie informed Jean, "He and Eren are still in sickbay from their fall a few days ago, don't you remember?"

Annie remembered...

 _They were practicing using the 3DM gear in formation. She had been so scared that Eren wouldn't be breathing when she finally made it to their side. The two of them were unconscious, but Annie could feel a pulse. Mikasa and the rest of the formation were already far ahead, except for Connie, who had seen them fall and was rushing to help._

 _"Annie, grab Eren." Connie prompted, hefting Armin over his shoulder._

 _"But," Annie began. She felt much more comfortable carrying Armin._

 _"Annie, they're alive right now, but they might not be for much longer if we don't get them to sickbay as soon as possible." Connie activated his 3DM gear, heading back towards the camp and leaving Annie and Eren behind._

 _Annie swallowed and grabbed Eren, throwing him over her shoulder just like Connie had with Armin. She pulled the triggers on her handles and the cables shot forward, propelling them through the forest. Annie released more propulsion gas and kept willing the gear to go faster, but it was at its maximum speed._

 _She made it to sickbay what seemed like years later. Connie was walking out, already having set Armin down into a bed and informed the doctors of what had happened. He made eye contact with Annie._

 _"I told the docs that you'd be showing up with Eren." They've got a bed set up for him._

 _"Thank you." Annie said, walking Eren inside. She placed him on the bed. Just as she was about to leave though, she turned ack around. Annie pulled the sheets over him and positioned his head more comfortably on the pillow._

 _Annie reached out with her hand to brush at his cheek but, her hand an inch from Eren's face, retracted it just as quickly. She turned to leave._

Annie was snapped out of her memories by Jean's sudden cheering. She realized that they had made it back to the campground, and better still, that none of the other trainees seemed to have arrived. Shadis was standing in the middle of the yard, alone. They were back.

"Adequate job, cadets. You're the first group back."

"And our special privileges, sir?" Jean asked, grinning wide.

Shadis turned away again. "Your privileges are that you get to relax until the rest get back."

Jean's smile faded.

* * *

"Eren," a faint voice whispered, "Eren, wake up."

Eren's eyes fluttered open. It was dark out. It took awhile for his eyes to get adjusted, but when they did, he saw a blonde girl sitting in the darkness on the edge of his bed.

"Annie?" He whispered. "What time is it?"

"About midnight." Annie responded.

"Oh." Eren replied. He wondered what she came here for. She had made it pretty clear that she didn't want anything to do with him, so what was she here to say? He decided to wait for her to talk.

"I've been thinking," Annie whispered, "about what you said. You wanted to be a part of my life. Is that still true?"

Eren was surprised. "Yeah, but only if you want me there. It seems like you kind of don't."

"I didn't. Or at least, I thought I didn't." Annie turned away. "You've been so nice to me, Eren. So kind. You've been everything I never knew I wanted."

"What do you mean?" Eren asked.

"I was raised to always be on the defensive. My father told me never to let anybody get too close to me, because then they'd be able to hurt me. So I grew up without any friends. I didn't think I needed any. I wanted to be alone, Eren." Annie turned to look back at him, and Eren could see, even in the darkness, the worry and nervousness in her eyes. It was taking a lot out of her just to open up to him this much.

"And then I met you," the suddenly vulnerable-looking girl continued, "and suddenly... I don't want to be alone anymore. I'm sorry for what I said earlier, Eren, I was wrong. I want you in my life, and I want to be in yours. I want you to be someone I can depend on."

Eren was silent for a long time. _And all this time, I thought she hated my guts._ He was immensely relieved.

"So what do you say?" Annie asked, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

Eren didn't say anything. Instead, he placed his hand behind Annie's head, brought her close to him, closed his eyes, and pressed his lips against hers.

Annie seemed tense at first, but she melted into the kiss very quickly, and was clearly surprised when he pulled away, judging from the shade of red she turned.

"I'd love that." Eren said simply.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Hey, so here's Chapter 4. It's Annie's birthday! Here's a little bit of relationship development, I guess. Eren is an adorable sweetheart to Annie, and Annie starts to become a little more comfortable with Eren. Next chapter might have a little bit of smut, not sure yet. Please let me know what you guys think in the reviews!

* * *

Keeping a relationship secret is no easy task, especially when you have such little time together because you're constantly being monitored. He hadn't even been able to kiss her yet, apart from the quick one he gave her in the infirmary. Over the course of two weeks, Eren felt a sort of joyous serenity that swelled up in his heart every time he saw Annie. She was his first girlfriend, and he was determined not to mess this up.

And he certainly wasn't going to let something as insignificant time constraints ruin it. So he snuck in little romantic gestures every now and then. For now, he was limited to simply holding her hand under the table during mealtimes, but Annie's birthday, March 22nd, was coming up soon and he was determined to make it the best she's ever had. He doubted she had very many good birthdays in her life.

He had a few ideas, but as it stood, he couldn't confirm anything yet. He'd need help- a lot of help- to make his plan work.

"Sasha?" Eren asked. Of course, the ever-hungry Sasha Braus was still in the mess hall, the last one, scrounging leftovers off the tables. "Could I talk to you for a minute?"

Sasha was chewing food, and held up a finger in a _wait a minute_ gesture. She swallowed. "What is it, Eren?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could help me a bit." Eren figured that being completely up front would be the best idea. "I need you to help me get some meat."

Sasha's eyes widened at the word "meat." She grinned ear to ear and jumped to her feet. "I'd love to help. Do you want to steal it from the instructors' cabin?"

Eren shook his head. "No, I don't want to risk being kicked out. You came from a hunting village, right? Can you help me catch something?"

Sasha tilted her head. "I don't have my bow. It probably won't be easy to score a kill."

"Please, Sasha, it's really important!"

Sasha was startled by this. "What? Why? What do you need it for?"

"Well..." Eren debated whether or not he should tell Sasha. Only two other people outside of Eren and Annie knew, and they were Armin and Mina. Would Sasha keep quiet? "Can you promise you won't tell anyone?"

Sasha nodded. "Yeah, sure. I promise."

Eren decided to tell her. "Well... I'm kind of going out with Annie."

"Wait," Sasha said, leaning in and trying to find some trace of deception in Eren's eyes, "blonde Annie? Sulky, antisocial, grumpy, mean Annie?"

Eren got defensive. "She's really nice, once you get to know her." He argued. "But yeah, that Annie. Her birthday is coming up and I want to do something really special for her."

"So you want to bring fresh meat? You want to cook for her, is that what you're saying?" Sasha figured out.

"Yeah. But I don't know the first thing about hunting, or cooking, really. So I need your help."

Sasha smiled. "Okay, under one condition."

"Yeah, sure." Eren agreed, smiling. "What is it?"

"I get to keep a little bit of whatever we catch."

"Sure thing. Thank you so much, Sasha."

* * *

Annie struggled to understand affection. She was experiencing it for the first time, and while she was incredibly uncomfortable with it, that doesn't mean she didn't like it. The fluttering in her stomach... Butterflies, Eren had called them when she asked. Uncomfortable, but pleasant. The jump in her heart rate whenever he looked at her.

And his lips, too. Warm and soft, tasting faintly of charcoal. Her first kiss, absolutely wonderful thanks to him.

Romance did not come easy to Annie. She didn't really know what she was doing, but Eren had admitted that he didn't either, so she hoped that they would figure it out together. They just went along with what felt right.

Not like they had much time to do so anyways. Shadis had been keeping them exceptionally busy the past few days. Because of this, the pair of them were always tired and unable to meet after curfew. The fact that they agreed to keep their status as a couple a secret didn't help. Often, she wanted to kiss him goodnight before they went to their separate barracks, but other cadets were always around. Unfortunate, but necessary. She would hate to be the center of gossip.

Eren made her feel happy, which was something she hadn't felt in a long time. He normally seemed so distraught and burdened, like he was carrying the anger and pain of the entire universe in his chest on his back. Whenever their eyes locked, though, she could see all of that leave. It was proof that she was _special_ to him. Annie was _special_ to _Eren_. Of course, he was special to her too. Annie was felt lonely, so lost, so _purposeless_ in the world. When Eren would hold her hand though, under the tables in the mess hall where nobody could see, she felt like she actually belonged somewhere.

"So, Annie," Mina prodded, bringing Annie back to reality, "how's Eren at kissing?"

Annie blushed and looked at the cabin floor. "Uh," she muttered, "I'm not really sure."

"What?" Mina said, "I mean, you've kissed him, right? How was he?"

"I don't know." Annie looked away, brushing her hair behind her ear, "I have nobody to compare him to."

"Did you enjoy it though?" Mina asked, half-teasing, half-serious.

"I..." Annie blushed. "...did."

Mina let out a squeal of delight. "That's so adorable, Annie!

Your face turned all red and stuff."

Annie scowled and got up to leave. She wasn't in the mood to be laughed at.

"Wait, Annie!" Mina said, "I'm sorry. I just got a little bit excited, is all. I didn't mean to laugh at you"

Annie sighed and sat back down. She was silent for a long while. Finally, she spoke up. "What happened to him in Shiganshina?"

Mina shook her head. "He doesn't talk about it. I don't think anyone knows, except for probably Mikasa and Armin. If anyone else though, I would have thought you'd know."

Annie thought to his eyes, his green, sad, pained eyes. "He'll tell me when he's ready."

* * *

Four days later, Sasha and Eren were stealthing through the forest in the dead of night, ducking under fallen trees and hopping over the creek. Sasha had been tracking some animal, Eren couldn't tell what it was from the tracks, through the forest for at least an hour. He had voiced his boredom a couple of times earlier, but every time he did, Sasha would just whisper, "Ssh, keep your voice down. You want to get that meat for Annie, don't you?"

So they trekked on. And finally, they saw it. A doe, drinking water from a river, about twenty feet away. It was Eren's first time seeing one, and he almost regretted having to kill it. Sasha crouched down, and motioned for him to do so as well.

"Here," she said, thrusting into Eren's hand the wooden spear she had been carrying.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Eren asked.

"Throw it, what else would you do with it?" Sasha said, looking somewhat incredulous

"You want _me_ to kill it?"

"You want the meat, you kill the deer. Just pretend it's a titan or something."

"But it isn't trying to eat me." Eren muttered. He brought the spear up nonetheless and faced towards the deer. "Where should I aim?"

"Try hitting it in the neck." Sasha answered. "It won't do you any good to hit it in the ass."

Eren focused, gauging the distance and the weight of the spear. And then he flung his arm forward, launching the wooden missile at its target. It soared through the air and struck its mark, hitting the center of the deer's neck. The deer let out a cry and jerked around, trying to run away, but it fell over after making it only about five feet.

"Nice throw!" Sasha remarked, "Truthfully, I was expecting you to miss. Here, I'll teach you how to skin and gut a deer."

* * *

Eren wiped his hands once more. While the blood had long since left his hands, they still felt dirty and grimy. He saw a water pump and headed over to wash his hands more thoroughly.

"Eren!" A voice whispered.

Eren turned to see a large, well-built figure heading over to him. Eren couldn't see his face very well in the dark, but it had to be Reiner. Nobody else was that big and hulking.

"Reiner. What's up?"

"Nothing, I just came out for a little bit of fresh air and saw you walking along. What's in the bag?" Reiner gestured to the bag slung across Eren's shoulder. It was a waterproof sack that Eren had brought with him that he was using to transport the cuts of venison.

"Oh, nothing, really." He whispered. "Don't worry about it."

Reiner shrugged. "Alright then."

Reiner turned to leave, but Eren had an idea. He had been wondering what to get Annie as a present, but he couldn't figure it out. "Wait, Reiner," Eren whispered, loud enough to be heard, but quiet enough not to wake anyone. "You've known Annie for a lot longer than I have, right?"

Reiner frowned, not really understanding where this was going. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, do you have any idea what t get her as a birthday gift?" Eren said.

Reiner's eyes widened and a faint smile grew on his face. "Oh, don't tell me. Do you like Annie?"

"You could... Say that." Eren replied.

Reiner stifled laughter. "That's hilarious! You have a crush on Annie!"

Eren regretted asking. What he wanted to say was "For your information, we've been a couple for three weeks." But he settled for "So you can't help me then?"

"Now, I didn't say that." Reiner calmed down. He stopped laughing, but he was still smiling profusely. "Annie doesn't like much, but she does like soft things."

"Soft things?" Eren echoed.

"Yeah, it's why she always wears that hoodie, even when it's crazy hot. Oh, she also likes alcohol. And it just so happens that yours truly has a very nice bottle of ale, straight from the Orvud district. I can give it to you, if you want."

Eren was shocked. "You don't want anything for it?"

Reiner shrugged. "I don't drink. I was gonna trade it for something, but none of the cadets have anything I want. You'll find better use of it anyway, but you're gonna have to figure the 'soft thing' out yourself."

Eren beamed. "Thank you!"

* * *

Annie awoke to a pair of hands, one clamped down around her mouth and the other holding her arms in place above her head. She tried to scream and punch, but the hand on her mouth muffled the cry and the hand on her wrists prevented her from moving. She realized quickly though, that this was no threat. The familiar green eyes twinkled in the darkness with something that almost resembled mischief.

"Hey, Annie," Eren said, "come on. "I've got to show you something."

"Eren," Annie said through Eren's hand, "get off me."

"Right, sorry." Eren released his grip on Annie and stood back as she sat up, keeping her chest covered by her blanket. Eren waited.

"Well?" Annie prompted, "Turn around."

Annie could see Eren's face going red. "R-right. Sorry." He stammered.

Annie got up and stepped over to her footlocker. She noticed the cold night air against her skin. She only wore a white shirt and a pair of gray cotton shorts to bed, and it was difficult not to shiver as she slipped on a pair of longer cotton trousers and her usual hoodie.

Annie turned to Eren, who was still looking away, and slipped her arms around his waist. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his ear, which earned her a smile spreading across his face.

"Very cute." He acknowledged.

"So what did you want to show me?" Annie asked.

"Follow me."

Eren led Annie outside and guided her to an area a few hundred meters behind the cabins. "Close your eyes," he instructed.

"Eren, this is stupid."

"Come on," Eren said, "It has to be a surprise. Please?"

Annie complied with a sigh. "Fine. Whatever."

Eren sneezed in the cold night air.

"Shut up." Annie told him.

Annie could hear many noises. Cloth rustling, metal clinking, and liquid pouring. She could also smell... Was that meat?

"Okay, open your eyes." Eren said. Annie opened her eyes slowly, and then, at the spectacle before her, widened them. Eren had prepared a very nice, warm cooked meal for her and laid it out for them. Meat, steamed vegetables, drinks and all.

"Eren..." Annie's voice trailed.

"Happy birthday, Annie."

"Eren, how did you get all of this?" Annie marveled.

"Well, the vegetables I snuck from the mess hall on my day as server. The meat, I went hunting with Sasha for. As for the ale, well, Reiner helped me with that one. Now come on, let's eat before it gets cold."

Annie and Eren sat down side by side and started munching down on the food. Eren said something about being worried that his cooking, even with Sasha's help, would be unsatisfactory, but to Annie, it was an delicious mixture of warm and savory tastes. Annie wondered when the last time she ate something this good was.

 _He's wonderful,_ Annie thought, as she placed her head down on her boyfriend's shoulder.

They finished their food and were about to drink when Eren stood up. "Almost forgot," he said. He reached into his bag and drew a large, folded piece of what looked like fabric and unraveled it to size. Eren draped it around Annie's shoulders. "It's a deerskin blanket. How is it?" He asked.

Annie felt the surface of the deerskin and brought it up to her face. _So soft,_ she thought. _So nice. It feels like the way Eren makes me feel inside. Warm, fuzzy..._

She'd never admit that to Eren though. "It's nice." She said with a smile. She was blushing again. She hadn't expected Eren to do anything this nice for her. It was a very pleasant surprise.

"Good." Eren said, relieved. He sat down next to her and grabbed an end, throwing it over himself as well. "And now, we can drink."

When they had finished their drinks, Annie lay contented on Eren's chest. She could hear his heartbeat, and feel his chest rise and fall with every breath. She looked at Eren. Eren looked back.

"Eren?" Annie asked, finally.

"Yeah?"

"I think I want to tell people about us. A couple of people, at least."

Eren smiled. "I'm fine with that."

Annie crawled forward and closed the gap between their lips. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered around again, ticking at her gut, but urging her to continue. She could feel Eren kissing back, feel how soft his lips were, feel how much he cared about her. Her mind went numb and suddenly, the only thing that mattered anymore was Eren. Not a thought about the mission, or the other Shifters, or even her father. Just Eren, sweet, caring, _perfect_ Eren, who promised to always there, no matter what, who was with her when she fell asleep, who took her back to her bunk and laid her down, still wrapped in her deerskin blanket.


	5. Chapter 5

(Republish of chapter) Hey, guys. Chapter 5 is here. I know I said I might put smut in this chapter, but it's still completely smutless. However it is about a eight hundred words longer than my other chapters, so I hope you find it in your hearts to forgive me for keeping it PG. Also, for those who don't know who the Armored and Colossal Titans are, spoiler alert. This chapter begins the battle of Trost. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 5:

Eren and Annie sat down at a table, separated from the rest of the cadets. Not by choice, rather, when they told "a few people" about being together, those few people spread the rumor like wildfire, and suddenly, the two of them were "the cute couple", more of a spectacle to watch from afar than anything else. People would look at them from afar during lunches, whispering quietly among themselves and giggling. The teasing was also pretty insufferable, especially from Reiner.

Annie knew Eren didn't mind much, but it bothered her. She didn't like being the center of focus among large groups, but at least Eren could be openly affectionately with her now.

The couple finished their dinner and stood up. Eren took Annie's tray and put both of them up on the counter.

Eren was always doing that, little gestures that made her life a little bit more convenient. The only way she could really describe it to herself was that Eren was being a gentleman. Annie realized that she didn't really do anything nice for him, and suddenly felt a little guilty. He was always showing her how much she cared, and she never did the same.

He made his way back to her and walked her outside, and kissed her on the nose. Annie felt self-conscious about it a lot, so it was refreshing to know that it was one of his favorite features about her.

"Eren," Annie said as the pair sat down in their usual spot behind the cabins, the spot they had Annie's birthday meal in. Eren sat with his legs crossed, and Annie seated herself in his lap, tucking in her knees so that Eren could wrap his arms all the way around her and place his chin on her shoulder.

"Yeah?" Eren cocked his head slightly.

"I care about you a lot. You know that, right?"

"Of course." Eren smiled and pulled her closer to him, and kissed her cheek.

"Good." Annie said, resting her head against Eren's.

"Are you worried that I don't know that, Annie?"

"A little." Annie confessed, earning her another squeeze from Eren.

"Well, don't." Eren said. "I think you look more beautiful when you're not worried about anything."

It wasn't the only thing worrying Annie, though. Graduation was a few months away, and Eren, despite being one of the best in the class, still had his heart set on joining the Scouts.

Annie knew how often members of the Scouting Regiment were killed in action. She didn't want Eren to become another statistic. She wanted him safe, within the walls, at least until she could figure out how to save him. Annie still, after all, had an obligation to carry out her duty.

"Eren?" Annie asked again.

"What is it?"

"Why do you want to join the Scouts so badly? With the way you're performing, you could make the top ten and be eligible for the Military Police."

"Annie, you know that isn't what I want." Eren replied, somewhat glumly.

"You don't want to be safe, with me?" Annie implored.

"No, that's..." Eren sighed. Annie could feel him becoming somewhat upset. "Annie, are you sure you want to know the truth, because you'd better be ready to handle it."

Annie went silent for a long time. "Would you be okay with telling me?"

Eren nodded. "I trust you."

Annie's heart skipped a beat. _He just said he trusts me._ She thought. Trust? That wasn't something that came naturally, it wasn't something Annie took lightly. It was synonymous with someone putting their life in someone else's hands. Trust carried a tremendous amount of responsibility and care.

"Yes," Annie replied. "I want to know."

* * *

Eren sighed, preparing himself. He had wanted to tell her for awhile, but he had never previously had a good chance. "When Armin and I were kids, before we met Mikasa, he showed me this book. It was about all of the amazing things that lay outside the walls. Bodies of saltwater so big that no merchant would be able to deplete it, mountains so enormous they take weeks to climb, lakes of fire, and giant landmasses made entirely of ice... I want to go and see all of them. There's so much out there, a life in the walls couldn't possibly even hold a candle."

Eren's pictured such wonders in his head, wonders that seemed a million miles away. He could feel Annie watching them curiosity. And then he thought of the real world, the situation that humankind was in. The oppression that they were subject to under the titans.

"The reason," Eren said, his face twisting and contorting into a determined rage, "that we can't go and see them is because of all the damn titans that keep us all caged in here like livestock."

"I hate them." Eren muttered, "I'm going to drive them out of this world, and kill them all."

Annie was reminded of what she was, deep down _._ A twang of hurt shot through her chest and for the hundredth time, she felt self-loathing tug at her heart. "Why?" She asked, "Why do you hate them so much?"

"The day that Shiganshina fell," Eren said, "when the Colossal Titan kicked in the gate, a piece of rubble landed on my house. It..." Eren took a breath, steadying himself. "My mother was still inside. The house collapsed on top of her. By the time Mikasa and I got there, a Titan had spotted her."

Eren could feel tears begin to make their way to his eyes and willed them to stay inside.

"My mother told us to run, that her legs had been broken and that she wanted us to leave her and save ourselves." It flashed before his eyes again. "We tried to help, we weren't going to just let her die. But then a Garrison soldier came and carried us away... As we were running away, though, the titan had picked her up... I could..."

Eren couldn't hold the tears back any more. They slowly and quietly began to stream down his cheeks.

"I could see her legs flailing around when it picked her up. She... She was kicking around. She wouldn't have been able to do that with broken legs..." Eren buried his head in Annie's shoulder, quietly sobbing. "It was smiling..." He muttered. "The stupid fucking titan was smiling when it killed her. I saw the blood spill out of her when it tore her in half. My own mom..."

"Shh," Annie comforted, rubbing Eren's back and planting a quick kiss on the side of Eren's head. "It's okay. I'm... I'm here for you."

It was a tremendous relief for Eren, to get all of that off his chest. It felt good to tell Annie, it made up for the hell of living through all of it again. He sat up and looked at her. Her eyes looked on the verge of tears themselves. Eren took a deep breath and released, steadying himself.

"Thank you, Annie." he said. "That really helped. I just feel so alone sometimes."

"You aren't alone, though, Eren. You've got Armin, and Mikasa..." Annie's voice trailed. "And me. I'm always going to be here for you."

Eren was immensely appreciative of that. He knew how much she cared about him, and how hard it was for her to break down the barrier of feigned apathy that had been second nature to her. Once again, he felt a swell of pride at the thought that of all people, she had chosen _him_ to open up to.

"Annie?" Eren asked.

"Hm?"

"When this war is over... When we've won, and the titans are all dead... I'm going to take you to see the world outside the walls. We're going to climb the mountains, and sail the seas, and have lots of adventures."

Eren didn't hear a verbal response, but Annie grabbed his hand with both of hers and kissed it.

 _Yeah,_ Eren thought, _you and me, until the end._

* * *

"Annie," a voice called out. The cadets were getting ready for the end of the day, and Annie was slipping out of her training gear and into her shorts and white t-shirt. Her gift from Eren was still laid out on her bed. She had slept with it every night since Eren got it for her.

Annie turned to see the owner of the voice. It was Mikasa.

"A word?" Mikasa said, turning and walking away. It was more of a demand than a request, and Annie finished putting on her clothes and followed her outside, where they were out of earshot.

"What is it?" Annie asked Mikasa, glowering. They had put aside their rivalry for the sake of Eren, but they were still not really comfortable with each other.

"Annie, I'm going to make this abundantly clear, so listen up." Annie didn't like Mikasa's tone. Hostility dripped from her voice. She could have started an argument, but she elected not to.

"I'm listening," Annie said through gritted teeth.

"Good. Eren is important to me, got it? I made a promise, years ago, to protect him from everything and everyone. I don't really care for you myself, but Eren cares about you a lot. So if you do anything to hurt him, anything at all..." Mikasa glared murderously, and Annie returned the look. "...I will kill you. Understand?"

As if Annie would ever intentionally hurt the only person that made her feel happy. "You'd be welcome to try." She challenged, and turned around to walk away, leaving Mikasa behind for the warmth of the cabin interior.

The rest of training went by quickly, and soon, graduation night was upon them. Shadis had called in Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Eren, Jean, Marco, Connie, Sasha, and Krista into his quarters before the rest of the cadets formed up in front of the stage.

"Congratulations." Shadis spoke. "You guys made the top ten. In the order that I called you in, I want you to march on the stage in front of your peers so they can bask in your glory. You guys can join the Military Police in two days if you want."

Jean, Connie, Sasha, Marco, and Krista cheered. Annie turned to Eren and saw him looking off nonchalantly. He obviously still wanted to join the Scouts. She was slightly disappointed. After Shadis dismissed them, they walked to their designated position and made their way onto the stage, in front of everybody. Annie looked out and saw everybody looking up at her and the other cadets, some admiring, some jealous.

The ten of them stepped back down and rejoined the main cadet body, and after a speech from Shadis and a couple other military officials, left for dinner.

During the feast, everybody seemed so happy. Annie, however, was feeling conflicted. She knew that the time that she had to freely spend with Eren was about to come to an end, and they'd be able to see each other significantly less very soon. She also knew that her mission was about to go underway, and was doubting everything. She needed some time alone, so she sat away from Eren and the others during dinner.

"Are you insane?!" A boy screamed. The room went silent. All heads turned in the direction of the voice. It was a blonde boy with short hair and sideburns.

 _Oh,_ Annie thought, _Thomas._ And then she saw Eren standing next to him, looking at him with confusion and determination.

Thomas realized that everybody was looking at him. "How many people have died? We're talking a fifth of the population, here."

Everybody knew what he was talking to. The territory retrieval operation, where most of the refugees from within Maria were slaughtered in a bogus military "assault."

"If that doesn't put this into perspective for you, I don't know what does." Thomas continued. "This is our life now. There's no beating them."

The cheeriness of the room had fallen to the floor and shattered into nothingness, replaced with a numbing sense of dread and hopelessness.

"So what?" Annie could hear Eren answer with his usual fiery conviction. "Do we surrender? Let the titans do whatever they want with us? Things have changed. Sure, only slightly, but that's enough. They aren't the mystery they were five years ago. We still have a ways to go, but we've made progress. Every battle we lost gave us valuable information, gave us the tiniest shred of something like hope."

Annie looked over at her boyfriend. _So this is how he feels..._ She thought.

"Are you telling me it's better to just cut our losses, and let all of that defeat and death be meaningless, just swallow it and be done? I don't think so! Humanity's future lies outside of these fucking walls, and I'm gonna lead us there! I'm gonna take back what they robbed us of!"

Even from this distance, Annie could see all the pain of Eren's past translating into raw, unadulterated rage. "I'm going to fight them. And as long as at least one person can say that, this war is _not_ over."

Eren seemed to notice that a crowd had formed around, listening to his monologue, and turned to run away. Mikasa and Armin followed.

 _Later,_ Annie thought, _I'll go to him later._

* * *

The next day, Eren stood atop the wall performing cannon maintenance with his squad and another. He was startled to realize that between last night and now, quite a few people, even among the top ten, had decided to join the Scouts instead of the "safe" regiments.

"Your little speech had nothing to do with it!" Connie insisted.

"Relax, Connie, it isn't just you."

Eren turned to see Mina, grinning ear to ear. She and Nac were holding hands. Eren knew that she had a crush on the taller boy, and smiled. They had finally gotten together, it seemed. Millius and Thomas were behind them.

"Wait, all of you decided to join the scouts?"

"Guys!" Another voice called off. It was Sasha, running towards them, hiding something underneath her jacket and grinning insanely. She slowed to a halt in front of them. "I stole some meat from the officers' quarters." She opened her jacket to reveal a hunk of red flesh wrapped in a net.

The entire group was mortified. "Sasha!" Thomas screamed, "Do you have any idea how rare meat is? You're gonna be hung!"

"Don't worry." Sasha waved her hand. "Once we retake Wall Maria, we'll have plenty of room to grow livestock."

Eren smiled. _Yeah, that's right._ _No more running from the titans. From here on out, we are going to be the ones who attack. The age of titans is over._

The events that happened next confused Eren.

A flash of lightning

A giant cloud of steam

And then, suddenly, _he_ was back.

The Colossal Titan that kicked in the gate of Shiganshina was back, just like Eren remembered him. Skinless body, gaping mouth, sixty meters of terrifying, monstrous flesh. It let out a blast of steam, and Eren was sent flying back. He shot his hooks out and caught the wall. He could see the other cadets had done the same, and Sasha had used one of her hooks to grab onto a cadet who had been unable to react in time.

Purpose and rage flooded through Eren's system as he sprung into action. "Don't let him get away! This is our chance!" He called out to the other cadets as he propelled himself forward. He used his inertia to launch himself into the air, and landed on the wall. He held the Colossal Titan's gaze.

"Hey," Eren snarled, "It's been five years."

The Colossal Titan swung his arm down the length of the Trost wall and brushed off the cannons as if they were clutter on a desk. _The cannons?_ Eren thought. _It's intelligent! It's gonna break the wall again!_

Eren hooked onto the Titan and flung himself around, firing another cable at its back and reeling himself in for the kill. A second before the blade connected with the flesh, however, the monster let off another cloud of steam and sent Eren backwards. Eren released the reel on his cable and allowed himself to be sent backwards, and launched himself forward again. He slashed, cutting through the smoke to reveal... Nothing.

Just like five years ago, the titan had vanished.

What's more, there was a gaping fifteen-meter hole in the wall.

"Eren, what happened? Did you kill him, or did he get away?" Thomas asked from atop the wall.

"He's gone!" Eren called back. "Just like the last time!" Eren was disappointed in himself. He missed his chance to bring down the Colossal Titan and come that much closer to bringing this war to an end. Landing back on the wall, he faced his friends. "I'm sorry... I let him get away."

"Don't be sorry, look at us. We were too terrified to move."

A soldier from the Garisson appeared next to them. The cadets saluted. "The Colossal Titan contigency is in effect, cadets. Head back to HQ. If you saw the thing, report it."

"Sir," Connie exclaimed, "we pray for the advance team's success."

* * *

"Where is he?" Annie thought to herself. She knew that Eren was stationed directly above the gate, and was terrified that Eren hadn't survived the appearance of Bertholdt's Titan.

She had long since formed up with the other cadets and was anxiously awaiting Eren's return. Ah, there he was, walking with Mina, Connie, and a few others towards headquarters.

A platoon commander was addressing the cadets as they hastily prepared their gear for what was sure to be a grueling battle. "You cadets have all passed training. You are officially soldiers now. We expect that you will all bring credit to your regiment."

Annie finished preparing her gear and loading her blades. She stepped out into the assembly area and fell into formation, waiting for the field commander's orders.

"Cadets," the bearded man yelled, "split into groups. You will resupply your comrades, relay orders, and kill any Titans you encounter. The Garrison will form the vanguard. Trainees will compose the middle guard, and the rearguard will be controlled by the elites. Perform your duties knowing that the advance team has been neutralized. Titans are entering the city."

 _All according to plan._ Annie thought to herself. She was very torn, though. Part of her was devoted to her mission, part of her wanted to call this entire thing off to take away Eren's chances of being killed.

"This means that the Armored Titan is likely to reappear as well. If he does, he will most likely destroy the inner gate as well." A disquiet followed the field commander's words. The rest of the cadets were obviously shaken. "QUIET!" The commander yelled. "Remember that abandoning your duties in the face of the enemy is punishable by death. If it comes to it, lay down your lives. We must hold off the titans until the citizens have escaped."

When the commander had finished, the cadets were broken up into squads. To Annie's disappointment, she was not assigned to the same squad as Eren. It looked like the squads were determined loosely by wall maintenance assignment earlier that day, actually.

 _Damn,_ she thought. _I need Eren to be safe. If something happens to him... What would I do?_

Annie saw him walking towards his squad: Millius, Nac, Mina, Thomas, and Armin. "Eren!" She called out. Eren turned and saw her, and broke into a run.

Annie crashed into Eren's chest and wrapped her arms around him, their gear clanging together awkwardly. "Eren," she said, her voice wavering ever so slightly, "are you going to be okay?"

Eren placed a hand on her head and pulled her in tighter. "I'm gonna kill a lot of titans, okay? I'm gonna make the world safer for you, for me, for us. I promise."

"Eren, I don't want this world to be safer. I need to know that _you'll_ be safe." Annie pleaded, a very small tear rolling down her cheek. God, when was the last time that Annie cried? "Promise, please. Promise that you'll find me when this is all over?"

"I promise," Eren reassured her, wiping her tear away, "there's no force in this world that will stop me from making it back to you. I will find you when this fight is won."

Annie nodded. "Okay." She stood on her tiptoe, and Eren leaned down to close the gap. Their lips locked, as if to seal the promise, and then, Annie believed him. Eren broke away and smiled.

"I love you, Annie." He declared, before turning to run and catch up to his squad.

Annie was stunned. Nobody had ever said those words to her before. She looked at the ground, wondering how to interpret them.

 _You love him too, don't you?_ A voice inside her asked.

Annie wondered. Was it love? Did she love this boy, who had shown her nothing but compassion and never once raised his voice with her, who did everything he could to make sure that she knew he cared about her?

 _Yes._ She thought. _I do. I love Eren Yeager._

 _Then tell him._ The voice said.

Annie looked up. "Eren!" She yelled.

But Eren was already out of sight.

* * *

Thank you for reading chapter 5 of "Annie's Heart." I hope you all enjoyed reading this, because I certainly enjoyed writing it. Please send your thoughts in the reviews :3 Also, I'm thinking of finishing my EreAnnie fanart and using it for the icon for this story. Let me know if you think it's a good idea. Thanks!


	6. Chapter 6

Still no smut, unfortunately, however I am absolutely positive it will be in the next chapter. Furthermore, I know this chapter took a little longer than usual to get out, and its relatively short so I really don't have an excuse. Eren gets eaten and Annie finds out. Enjoy!

* * *

Eren thought back to the promise he made Annie. _I will find you when this fight is won,_ he had told her. He was not going to break that promise.

"Squad 34!" A soldier called from atop a tower, "The vanguard needs reinforcements!"

Eren's heart raced. "Right." He turned to the other cadets in his squad. Armin, Thomas, Mina, Nac, Millius. They were all going to have to rely on each other to survive this battle. These next few hours were not going to be pleasant, Eren knew, but at the same time, he felt so _alive._ The training, the boiling hate for the titans, they were all finally going to be put to use. Actual, real, unsimulated use.

"Give them hell!" Eren called. He charged forward and engaged his 3DM gear, launching the hooks forward and propelling himself through the air. He was glad to take point and lead his squad, racing across building tops and soaring through the air like he was flying.

As they neared the front of the battlefield however, Eren could see Titans everywhere. He expected maybe one or two to get past the vanguard, but there were far more than that.

"So many titans!" Mina exclaimed.

"The vanguard has been overrun?" Thomas asked in disbelief.

Nac's voice added, "But those guys always talk so tough!"

From the start, Eren's didn't think this was going to be easy. He had seen the destruction that the titans were capable of. In Shiganshina, years ago, there was far too much carnage for him to ever forget. But there were just so many more. Eren wondered exactly what the situation was like.

Movement. On the side of a building, a titan grabbing the wall with its hands and the roof with its feet. It loaded its limbs, and prepared for a jump.

"Abnormal!" Eren screamed, allowing his training to take effect. He cancelled out his forward thrust with a pull of two triggers and shifted directions. The abnormal crashed into the side of a bell tower. Eren and the rest of 34th landed on a building about fifty feet away. Eren himself was hanging onto the edge of the roof with one hand. They turned around, prepared to engage the jumping titan.

It peered out from behind the bell tower, and in its mouth...

A blonde figure with short hair and thick sideburns... Eren's mind went blank. _No,_ he thought. _It can't be..._

Thomas was too far away for his teammates to hear, but his lips were so easily read that he might as well have been two feet away. "Help... Me..." He said.

The titan looked at them, as if to mock them, and swallowed Thomas whole. And then, it dropped off the tower and... Walked away. As if the situation bored him.

Eren's mind flooded with rage. How dare that fucking titan turn its back to him after just murdering Thomas. Protocol be damned, Eren wasn't going to let this piece of shit get away.

"You bastard!" Eren screamed, launching his cables towards the Titan. He became faintly aware of the rest of his squad calling him back and then following him, but he didn't care. Pure hate replaced rational thought, as he ducked under bridges and over trees, flinging himself as fast as he could towards the gargantuan monster that he was determined to slaughter.

"How dare you kill my friend!?" Eren screamed. "I'm not going to let you get away!"

Eren noticed the movement below him a quarter second too late. Another abnormal jumped up, and Eren felt a searing pain in his left leg.

"Eren!" Muffled voices shouted out, overlapping each other. Behind him, he heard bgan to hear the crashes of metal and flesh impacting bricks. A voice that sounded like Millius began screaming.

"Please! Don't kill me, please! No, sto-" the voice was cut off.

 _My squad..._ Eren realized, _They're killing my squad..._

Eren opened his eyes. A large, bearded titan was lumbering towards an immobilized Armin. The titan picked up the blonde boy genius and opened its mouth.

 _No,_ Eren thought, _I'm not going to lose you too, Armin... Not after my mother..._

Eren's eyes shot open and he remembered, _My mother._ How they killed her, how he vowed that the titans were going to pay for what they've done, it all came flooding back to him as if a damn had burst.

 _Armin..._ The titan dropped Armin into its maw. _I am not going to let you die._

Eren used his arms to prop himself up, and pulled the trigger on his gear. The expenditure of gas catapulted him forward, directly into the titan's still-open mouth. He grabbed Armin's flailing hand with not a second to spare. He used his arm and remaining leg to keep the titan's arms open and grimaced at Armin, determined.

Adrenaline fueling his strength, Eren threw Armin out of the titan's gullet and onto the roof of a nearby building. He could feel his strength beginning to fail as the titan started to slowly shut its mouth.

"I refuse to die this way. You hear me?" He snarled at the titan. He turned to Armin, delirious from the shock of losing a limb and the subsequent epinephrine rush.

"Hey, Armin..." He began, stretching his last limb towards his best friend, "You told me about the world outside. So... I'm going to get there one day... If it's the last thing I do..."

Armin's eyes widened and he scrambled for the edge of the roof, stretching his hand out to grab onto Eren. "Eren," he screamed, "Grab my hand!"

Eren felt his strength finally give. His limbs went limp, and the titan snapped its jaws shut. _Annie,_ he thought, as the he slid down the titan's throat towards its stomach to join its past victims, _I'm sorry._

* * *

Eren was never far away from Annie's mind. Amidst her slashing and hacking away at the Titans, she hoped that he was okay.

 _He's okay,_ she thought to herself. _He has to be. He promised._

"Two more titans up ahead!" Reiner yelled, "Twelve meter and eight meters high. Annie, take the eight-meter one. Bertholdt and I will take the twelve-meter one."

Annie nodded and shot a hook to her right, towards the lumbering giant. She rocketer towards it, and as it stretched its hand out, shifted direction with a left thrust and wrapped around it instead. Annie used her inertia to swing around and gained a clear view of the titan's nape. She reeled in her right hook and launched the left forward. Speeding towards the target, she drew her blade back, and swung it out in a deadly arc. The blade sheared through the flesh as if it were a red-hot knife through butter. The titan went limp and dropped. Annie turned around to rejoin her squad.

"There," Reiner said, "On that rooftop."

As Annie scanned the buildings for the rooftop Reiner was talking about, she noticed several squads of soldiers-Garrison and Trainees alike, probably- standing by, as if waiting for something.

 _That must be it._ Annie thought to herself. She swung from the buildings and drew closer to the group of survivors. _Is Eren here? Is he okay?_

As she landed, followed by the rest of her squad, she looked around. Eren was nowhere in to be seen. Annie was beginning to get nervous. _He'll be here,_ she reassured herself, _he'll pull through, just like he always does._

The sound of a cable reeling in and feel hitting the roof shingles broke her trance. She turned. Was it Eren?

No. It was squad 29, or what was left of them at least. Ymir, Christa, Connie... What was Armin doing with them? Wasn't he in Eren's squad? Annie looked away. She thought for a moment that she saw a glazed, dead, horrified look in Armin's eyes. She didn't want to confirm it.

The hours slipped away, falling through time and dissipating into nothingness. Clouds accumulated and threatened rain. The group of survivors were mostly seated now, crying, or with their heads buried in their hands, or staring wide-eyed, or all three. They had all seen unspeakable things, Annie knew. The situation was horrifyingly grim. The odds of their continued survival were diminishing.

"Jean!" Connie exclaimed, breaking the silence, "What are we going to do?"

Annie listened. Jean replied, rather defeated, with "What is there to do? They finally issued the order to retreat, and we were all out of gas." That was good, wasn't it? When everybody retreated into Wall Rose, the coast was clear to use Reiner's titan to break through the inner gate.

"We're all going to die because of those cowards..." Jean mumbled.

"The supply team..." Connie surmised, "Where the hell are they?"

"They barricaded themselves inside HQ. I can understand being afraid of the titans, but they abandoned their duty to keep us supplied. HQ is crawling with titans now, so we can't get in."

"We have to try!" Connie screamed. "We have to kill the titans around HQ and make it inside. We can't waste any more gas trying to run, because if we run out we're completely fucked!"

Annie saw Jean look up, surprised. She was surprised himself. Connie normally was a little empty-headed, but he pulled himself together to realize how dire their situation was. "Good to see you using your brain for once, Connie." Jean said. "But it's no use. There aren't enough of us left. Furthermore, the supply room is probably full of three- to four-meter titans. I doubt we can do much in there."

Connie sighed. "We're going to die..."

Jean ran his hand through his hair. "What a shitty life this was. If I had known, I would have told her..."

"Come on, let's give it a shot!" Sasha tried to encourage the survivors, "If we maintain formation and stick to our training, I know we can make it happen. I'll take point."

Her attempt was met with silence. Nobody was foolish enough to think they stood a chance.

"Armin, let's..." Sasha's voice trailed.

Annie turned to Reiner. "What's our next move?" She asked.

"Sit tight for now," Reiner replied, "If we do this, we do it together."

"It's hopeless..." Marco said off to their right, "We can't beat them. We're all going to die... I've been prepared to accept that, but... My death is going to be completely meaningless, isn't it?"

Annie felt something like guilt in her gut. Marco, kind, loyal, proud Marco, talking like this? It wasn't right.

"Mikasa, weren't you with the elites in the rear guard?"

Annie had been so absorbed by the current happenings she didn't even notice Mikasa running up to her. "Annie!" Mikasa's voice as laden with panic. "I know how bad things are. It's selfish of me to think of personal things right now, but have you seen Eren's squad?"

Normally, Annie would have told Mikasa to shove it, but in this, at least, they shared some common ground. If there was anything they could both agree on, Eren's safety was important. Her expression softened, slightly. "I haven't seen his squad." She replied. "He might have made it over the wall, though, so I'm not sure."

Reiner piped up. "Oh, Armin's over there if you want to ask him."

Mikasa half-ran, half-walked to where Armin was sitting with his head hung low. "Armin," she said, "you aren't hurt are you?"

Armin shook his head ever so slightly. Mikasa seemed to ease up a little bit. "Where's Eren?"

Annie could see, even from here, as tears dropped onto the roofing Armin's head was over.

"Armin, where's Eren?" Mikasa repeated, panic in her voice growing.

Armin looked up with the most pained expression Annie had seen on a human being. It was like a shore of grief was being pummeled by a cacophony of waves of terror. Tears streamed silently down Armin's face. Annie could feel the unspeakable emotions radiating off of him, and could feel her heart tearing in two, one half forcing its way to her throat and the other sinking into her stomach. _Please... No..._ Annie thought desperately.

"They..." Armin finally found his voice, and was struggling to not choke over the words. "The cadets of the 34th trainee squad... Thomas Wagner... Nac Tias... Millius Zeramuski... Mina Carolina... _Eren Yeager_... Fought bravely and valiantly, and gave their lives on the field of battle."

Annie was in such shock she couldn't even cry from the crushing grief. All she could do was _feel._ Ice spread throughout her chest and her gaping eyes stared, horrified, without taking in a single thing it was seeing. _No... Not Eren... Please, not Eren... He promised he'd come back to me._

"Please, no..." Sasha whispered.

"The entire squad was killed?" Somebody else asked.

"We'll go the same way if we try to fight." A glum voice replied.

Annie noticed all of this, but couldn't quite process it. _I never even got to say "I love you too"..._

"Armin," Mikasa urged, the icy calm in her voice bringing Annie back down to earth, "Now isn't the time to be emotional. Now stand up."

Mikasa turned around to address the group. "Marco, if we neutralize the titans surrounding Headquarters, we can make our way inside and resupply. Correct?"

"Y... Yeah..." Marco said uneasily, "But we can't kill them all, even with you on point."

"I can do it." Mikasa turned around, cutting into the air with her words. "I'm strong. Stronger than you, than all of you! I have the power to kill every titan that stands in my path... Even if I have to do it alone... You're weak. You're unskilled. You're cowards. I'm disappointed. Is this what you all trained for? ...How pathetic... Fine. Just sit back and watch."

A chorus of voices sounded off. "Mikasa, you're crazy!" "There are too many!" "You can't beat them!" "You're going to fight them by yourself?"

Mikasa heeded none of this. Annie could see the icy fire in Mikasa's eyes, staring all of them down. "If I lose, I die. But if I win, I live. And you can't win if you don't fight."

With that, Mikasa was off, jumping off the building and flinging herself forward.

 _Eren..._ Annie pleaded, _please come back... What do I do?_

"Hey!" Jean shouted. "We weren't taught to let our comrades fight alone! If you have any guts at all, then you'll follow me." With that, Jean too leaped away to face the titans, following Mikasa.

 _Eren wouldn't want me to give up._ Annie thought. _He'd want me to fight._

"Wouldn't want that, now, would we?" Reiner said, prepping for takeoff. Annie followed suit, feet heavy. She allowed her grief to turn to determination. She wasn't going to insult Eren's memory by giving in.


	7. Chapter 7

So, I've finished with chapter 7. I mean, obviously I have, if there's a page on this fic that reads "CH7" or whatever, but... Yeah... Anyways, if you don't yet know how Marco dies, spoiler alert. There's smut in this chapter, so if you want to read it go ahead, if not I marked it very clearly in the beginning and the end so you could avoid it if you wanted. It is my first time writing smut, so I have no idea how I did. It may be awkward, but some advice on writing better smut would be appreciated.

The tone shift is really weird because like Marco dies and then Annie and Eren get their freaky-freaky on. So yeah. A lil weird.

Also, I'm completely irresponsible for any tears you may shed during this chapter, especially during Marco's death. without further ado, here it is.

* * *

Chapter 7:

Gunfire rang though the cool air of the supply depot. Muzzle flashes illuminated the room like a strobe light. The titans in the room pawed at their eyes, shrieking like the wounded beasts they were.

Annie jumped down and swung her blades in wide slash, hacking deep into her targets neck and cutting out a chunk of flesh. She bent her knees as she hit the floor, cushioning the impact, and looked up. Most of the other cadets had managed to kill their own target titans too. The titans collapsed and began to smolder.

All except for two. Connie and Sasha had missed their marks, and their titans were turning around to face them.

"Sasha and Connie missed!" Marco screamed.

Maybe it was guilt. Maybe it was her way of dealing with the loss of Eren. Whatever it was, Annie leaped up, disregarding her own safety as well as the mission, and brought her sword up, tearing away at the flesh of Connie's target titan. When she hit the ground again, Annie saw that Mikasa had helped Sasha with the other titan. Annie stood up and brushed the dust off herself and walked towards the resupply station.

"That was dangerous..." A gruff voice said behind her. Annie turned. Reiner. He gave her a quizzical look, probably wondering why Annie took a risk like that to save Connie, who had never done anything that Annie would owe him for. "...I'm glad you weren't hurt..."

Annie shot a look at Reiner. _Not right now._ She thought. Reiner shrugged and turned to refuel.

The cadets were besides themselves with joy. "We're going to live!" They were shouting. Annie slid a set of fresh blades into the slits of her gear, and replaced her depleted canisters with new ones. She remembered the rogue titan outside HQ, the one that was keeping the standard titans from assaulting headquarters, and gave them their opening to make it out of here alive.

It had to be a shifter. That was the only logical explanation. But who was it? Could it be...

 _No,_ Annie thought, _Don't get your hopes up. Armin said Eren was killed._ Realization punched Annie in the gut again and she nearly doubled over. God dammit... Why did he allow himself to be killed? He knew that he was the only person Annie cared about. He knew that he was the only person who cared about her.

Excluding Mina, because she was dead too. Plus, Mina never made Annie a promise. Eren did. And he broke it.

Annie felt a hollow cavity opening up in her chest again as cold spread throughout her and into the tips of her fingers. The could feel tears welling up, and fought the urge to cry with all her heart. It took a while, but she managed to calm down and return to rational thought.

So who was in the titan? Somebody Annie knew? Whoever it was, they potentially jeopardized the mission... Did they? Zeke didn't say anything about another shifter, but Annie wouldn't have put it past him to send a reinforcement without informing the original trio.

Annie decided to go back to the roof and see for herself. She jogged up the stairs, and realized that she could no longer hear the hostile war cries of the rogue titan. Annie was worried he had succumbed to the onslaught.

She made it to the roof, and it was as she feared. The rogue titan was pinned against the remains of a building, silently, defeated. A few other titans were tearing off hunks of its muscly flesh, sapping its strength. The rogue titan's head hung low, as if it was sleeping. She and the other cadets who went to the roof could only look n in horror.

"Cannibalism?" Armin said, "Can he not regenerate like the other titans?"

"I was hoping that if we could figure out why that titan acts the way it does, we would be able to break the circle, give us a chance." Mikasa stated.

"I agree." Reiner said. Annie registered that he and Bertholdt were standing next to her. "If we allow it to be killed, we don't gain anything. I think our priority should be keeping that titan alive." Annie knew the real reason, though. He wanted to capture the shifter inside, and figure out how they fit into the plan, how they could fit into it. Or eliminate them, whichever worked best for the mission.

Jean piped up. "Reiner, are you fucking nuts? We have a way out of Trost, and you want to stay?"

"He's right. What if it could help us? A titan as an ally would be a huge advantage." Annie made up on the spot.

"Can you even hear yourselves?" Jean asked.

Heavy footsteps broke the argument. A blonde, lanky titan stepped into the road from behind a building.

"Oh no," Armin whispered, "It's the abnormal that ate Thomas..."

The rogue titan had spotted it too. It was invigorated, and let out a bloodcurdling roar. As it charged from the wall, the other titans, who had not relinquished their grasp on it, sheared off its arms, enabling the titan to move again as it pleased. The titan clamped down on the abnormal's neck and hefted it up. It turned to a couple of titans that were approaching from behind and swung the limp body, crushing them. Then it turned and released its jaws from the titan's neck, flinging the limp carcass into another titan, crashing them both against a building which collapsed from the impact.

 _It's lifting that entire titan, killed two others with its body, and then threw it against a building, all without its arms..._ Annie thought, _whoever it is, they're strong._

The rogue titan let out a triumphant cry. And then, as if its job was done, it buckled and fell to its knees, and then fell forward, face down.

"It ran out of energy." Jean muttered. "About time. We would have been next in its sights... Hey, come on, guys! We're going."

Annie and the other cadets stood looking at the collapsed titan. _If it's a shifter,_ Annie thought, _the person inside will come out in a bit..._

It was hard to tell from the steam, but Annie could make out the harness of 3DM gear. The figure slowly broke away from the flesh giant, and sat up, facing the sky.

Chocolate hair... Elfish features... A face that Annie was so familiar with.

 _Oh my god..._ Annie thought, the shock preventing her from moving, _How?_

Mikasa had made her way to Eren and put her ear against his chest. She pulled him in tight and started to weep.

Under normal circumstances, Annie would have been annoyed, even jealous. The other emotions wrapping themselves around her mind, however, pushed those feelings far away... Relief, confusion, joy, and something else. Something that Annie had never felt before. Like something that had been forcibly ripped out of her had been given back, a hole sealing itself up.

It dawned on Annie. _He wasn't killed... He was swallowed whole..._

Eren... Eren was alive!

* * *

Not being able to see the boyfriend she was reunited with upset Annie, but she forced the thought away for now. She, Bertholdt, and Reiner were talking amongst themselves back in Trost, wondering what this meant for the operation.

"I think we can all agree that even by shifter standards, Eren isn't normal." Reiner said. "He's incredibly powerful. My titan is proportionally the strongest out of the three of us, and I don't think I could have done half of what he did if it weren't for my armor."

Annie nodded. She felt a swell of pride in Eren, knowing that he was potentially stronger than Reiner. "Yes." She agreed. "And there's something else, too. His titan went completely insane. Like it was some sort of savage beast."

"None of us could control our titans when we first tried, though," Bertholdt said, "it's only natural that Eren should be a little animalistic. His gear and jacket were gone, I don't think he's familiar with his ability. I'd even go as far as to say this is his first time using it."

"That wasn't a lack of control," Annie argued, "it was pure savagery."

Two titans off to her left grabbed her attention, separated by a row of buildings. "They've noticed us. I'll deal with them."

Annie fired her cables and sped away into the direction of the two titans. One large, and one very small, she noted. probably eleven- and five-meter class.

 _I'll kill the small one first._ She thought. She swooped low and reared her blades back. She slowed and reversed right in front of the titan, retracting her hooks back into their sockets. She landed and shot the hooks out again, embedding them in the titan's eyes. It clawed at them in pain, and Annie seized the opportunity to launch herself upwards in an arc above and around the titan. She flipped and reeled in as she did so, giving Annie a clear target of the Titan's nape. She sliced through it with one strike and released her hooks, bringing them back and finishing her flip. She landed squarely on her feet, and stood up. The titan fell forward behind her.

Annie grabbed the side of the building with her left hook and swung around it. She landed on the rooftop and peered into the road below to see the other titan staring up at her, startling her.

Annie ran to her left and jumped into the road, avoiding a swing of the titan's hand. She jumped and turned around. The titan had stooped low and was reaching out with its hand. Annie grappled onto the buildings on either of its side and shot forward, ducking low and avoiding its hand once again, and passing between its legs. As she passed the Titan, she slashed at the backs of the titan's ankles, severing its Achilles' tendons. She slowed to a halt and turned around again.

The titan, incapacitated, was kneeling on the ground now. Annie leaped onto its back and ran up the length of its spine. She reached the nape and slashed downward in an x-pattern, and the titan went limp, crashing into the ground.

 _That takes care of that,_ Annie thought. She turned and hooked onto the walls, propelling her back in Reiner and Bertholdt's direction.

An unexpected scene awaited her. Reiner had pinned Marco to the roof of a building. Marco was scream-mumbling through Reiner's hand, which had clamped down on his mouth. Bertholdt stood off to the side, not helping Reiner but not stopping him either. Annie landed on the roof, overwhelmed by bewilderment.

 _Where the hell did Marco come from?_

Marco saw Annie and managed to shake off Reiner's hand. "Annie!" He screamed, "Help me!"

"What's going on?" Annie asked.

"Something's wrong with Reiner!" Marco tried to explain.

Reiner spoke much more calmly. "He overheard us talking about our titans. We can't let him live."

Annie paused for a second. "Fuck you! You piece of shit!" She screamed, although she wasn't sure who it was directed at. Marco, for sticking his freckled nose in where it didn't belong, Reiner for tackling their comrade, somebody who trusted them with his life, or Bertholdt, for just _standing_ there, not doing anything.

Marco looked at her, sad, confused, terrified. She could see the realization in his eyes. Yes, she could see him figure out that she was working with Reiner and Bertholdt.

"Reiner!" Bertholdt had finally found his voice, "A titan is coming this way!"

A big one, it seemed. Fourteen-meters, at least. As tall as Annie's titan.

"Annie!" Reiner said, beginning to panic, "Take of Marco's maneuver gear!"

Annie's eyes went wide as shock left her speechless.

"Wh- What?" Marco exclaimed.

"Do it!" Reiner commanded. "Now!"

"Why me?" Annie demanded, "You guys are the ones who got us into this shitstorm, so you should do it! Why should it be me?"

"You risked your life to save Connie, didn't you?" Reiner screamed. It was more of a statement than a fact. Annie remembered the dissatisfaction in Reiner's eyes when he addressed her about it. "Why would you endanger yourself in such a way? Don't tell me you've become attached to these people! If you're still one of us, prove it right now! If you and your father are really separate from the corruption of humankind, then show us, god dammit!"

"Reiner," Bertholdt said, panic dripping from his voice, "the titan's going to be here any second!"

"Annie! DO IT NOW!"

Annie took one look at the freckled boy, the only person she had ever met who wanted to serve in the Military Police for just and noble reasons. Marco, who had urged the others to leave Eren alone when they were pestering him about what happened in Shiganshina, who was kind and helpful to everyone he ever met.

And then she stooped down to undo the straps on his gear.

"ANNIE!" Marco begged, "STOP IT! PLEASE, ANNIE, STOP!"

Annie did her best to ignore Marco's pleas, working her hands around and undoing the buckles. She fought the tears welling up in her eyes.

"ANNIE, NO! STOP, PLEASE! WHY? GOD DAMMIT, ANNIE, JUST TELL ME WHY! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? ANNIE!"

Annie, after what seemed like an eternity, removed the gear from Marco's waist. First came the left leg apparatus, then the right leg, then the cable launcher. She threw it all into the building that they were standing on through a window. She, Reiner, and Bertholdt leapt from the building, launching their cables.

Annie's vision was blurry. She wasn't crying yet, but if something good didn't happen soon, she would be.

The three landed on a building thirty meters away and looked back. The titan had already picked up Marco's screaming figure. Unarmed and completely defenseless, Marco tried in vain to push himself away from the titan's mouth. It backfired though, as his hand slipped and his right side, from the side of his face to his waist, was suddenly in the titan's mouth.

It bit down.

The red blood flowed down Marco. _Marco..._ Annie thought, _Oh, God, what have I done?_

She gave in. Tears started streaming down her face as she wept silently.

"Hey..." Reiner said, as if he had juts arrived, "Marco's being eaten..."

Marco's words earlier that day echoed through Annie's mind again. _"My death is going to be completely meaningless, isn't it?"_

* * *

The day after the trial that followed the sealing of Trost's outer gate, Eren found himself sitting down the room he was assigned to. He found himself wondering about Annie. He hadn't been able to see her since before they deployed in Trost, since he told her that he loved her.

She hadn't replied. Which was to be expected, considering how unfamiliar she was with most of her emotions. Eren didn't necessarily want her to say it back. He just wanted her to know. If she didn't love him back, that was fine. He would

He sighed and looked out the window. It was a beautiful day in the Stohess district. Light, wispy clouds and a beautiful golden sun.

A knock on Eren's door made him turn his head. He stood up and walked over to the entrance of the room and swung open the door.

It was Annie, just as beautiful as he remembered her. She tackled Eren and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him so tightly it knocked the wind out of him.

And he hugged her back, pulling her close to him, resting his head against hers. Her smell wafted its way into his nose, the familiar smell of mint that he had associated with her.

"I missed you." Annie said simply, head still buried in Eren's shoulder.

"I missed you too, Annie." Eren whispered into her ear. "I promised I'd make my way back to you, didn't I?"

They held each other like that for a long while, maybe a bit too long, but neither of them cared. They had each other back, and that's all that mattered. And when they did pull away, their eyes met, and some sort of wordless promise passed between them. Eren placed his left hand on the back of Annie's head and his right on her waist, and brought her close. He kissed her slowly and passionately, channeling all of his emotions into the kiss.

* * *

 **SMUT AHEAD**

* * *

She seemed to register, and began kissing him more fiercely. She coaxed his lips apart, and Eren could feel her tongue rolling around in his mouth, and pushed his own tongue out to meet them. They danced, running over each other and swirling in rhythm as Eren felt a stiffness begin to grow in his pants.

Eren lowered his hands, grabbing onto Annie's ass and squeezing it playfully. Annie broke away from the kiss to start removing Eren's shirt while he did so, revealing Eren's toned, defined muscles, accentuating his arms, chest, abs, waist. When she was finished, Eren followed suit. He reached for the hem of Annie's shirt and lifted it up over her head.

Annie's chest was something Eren never got tired of seeing. Her boobs were supple and firm, shaped perfectly to fit into his hands. Only one hand went to them, though, as Eren instead moved his right hand down to rub her between her legs.

Annie started to moan, and Eren felt her hand undoing the buttons on his pants. He wasn't surprised, Annie was always very direct when it came to this stuff. She finished and reached into Eren's pants, grabbing his shaft and stroking it while he rubbed her. Eren brought his mouth to Annie's neck and started sucking and biting.

Eren wanted more. He grabbed the underside of her legs and carried her over to his bed. He layed her down, and the girl looked up at him, biting her lip to say _What are you waiting for?_

Eren inched Annie's pants off of her and discarded them into the corner of the room, along with the rest of their removed clothes. He traced circles around her clit through her underwear and kissed the inside of her thigh. Annie's moans got a little bit louder as she wriggled her hips against Eren's hand.

"More..." She whispered.

Eren smiled as he brought her legs together and peeled off her underwear, casting them aside. He looked back down at her, pink and soft and exposed and _wet._

"Do you want me to eat you out?" Eren asked coyly, already knowing the answer. Annie nodded, spreading her legs. Eren moved his lips down in between Annie's legs and sucked on her clit. Annie resumed her moaning, voice quivering from the pleasure, as Eren worked his tongue and lips around Annie's familiar folds. After months of dating, he figured out exactly how she liked to be eaten out, and how to make her cum. He slid his index and middle fingers inside of her and stroked at her g-spot while she bucked her hips, moans escalating into something resembling more of a scream.

"Eren," Annie said.

Eren looked up. "Yeah?"

Annie feigned an innocent stare as she whispered, "Fuck me."

Eren did his best to suppress a grin as he moved his hips against hers. He pressed against her and kissed her hard as he pushed in. Annie moaned into his mouth and bit down slightly on his upper lip. Eren started moving his hips, rhythmically, softly. Annie arched her back as Eren glided in and out of her, hitting her g-spot just right. She loved having sex with him, she loved how close it made them, how _fucking amazing_ it felt to have him inside her. Eren's grunts were a music to her ears.

Eren's broke away from Annie, leaving her free to moan as loudly as she wanted. Which was, by the way, _very loud._ A small part of Eren was afraid someone would hear, but a much bigger part didn't care at all. He was here, having sex with Annie. Screw what anyone else thought. Annie clawed at his back, and Eren continued to move against her. Back, forth, back, forth.

Eren could feel the scratches along his back. They turned him on, and he quickened his pace. _Backforthbackforth_. Annie wasn't expecting the change of pace, and couldn't contain herself.

 _"Fuck,"_ Annie whispered in between gasps. Her eyes rolled back into her head from the pleasure and her mouth hung agape. The orgasm came slowly and softly, washing over her like a wave on a beach. Eren pulled out of her, ready to reach orgasm herself. Annie got up and quickly put her lips around the tip, moving up and down the length of his shaft. Eren moaned, and Annie tasted his cum as it shot into her mouth, mixing with the taste of her own juices. She knew most other girls would find it a little revolting, but she liked the taste of their love.

* * *

 **SMUT FINISHED**

* * *

Eren collapsed and Annie crawled over to him, pressing her body against his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed contentedly.

"You know I could beat you up, right?" Annie muttered.

Eren smiled. He knew she was just saying this so he wouldn't think differently of her for liking to snuggle, but he played along. "Yeah, I know." He affirmed.

"Eren," Annie asked. She had completely forgotten the reason she came to visit him up until that point. "Before we deployed, you said you loved me."

Eren looked at her, prepared for anything she might say. "You're an idiot," "I don't feel the same," and "why?" were all answers he was expecting to hear. The answer he received, however, surprised him much more.

"I love you too."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8! Just some more interaction between the two. They go on a lunch date and comtemplate stuff. Next chapter, Annie's gonna try and kidnap Eren on the 57th expedition beyond the walls. Enjoy :)

* * *

Chapter 8:

Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie sat around a lamp that lit up the darkness of the night. They had snuck out of their respective quarters to discuss their next course of action.

"I think it's safe to say," Reiner said, arms crossed and looking serious as ever, "that Eren is the key that we've been searching for. Therefore, capturing him and bringing him back to our home should be our top priority."

Annie nodded. "He's too stubborn to be convinced to come quietly though, so we'll have to kidnap him."

"Right." Reiner agreed. "Now we know that in two days, the Scouts are embarking on an excursion beyond the walls. My squad leader briefed us on the plan. We'll be using commander Erwin's long-range scouting formation." Reiner picked up a stick and drew the formation to the best of his abilities. A semicircle, with different sections took shape.

Reiner drew an x near the left rear of the formation. "This is where Eren is supposed to be, according to my squad leader."

"That isn't where my squad leader said he'd be." Bertholdt interjected, furrowing his brow. "I was told he'd be closer to the front."

"Hm. This complicate things." Reiner looked up at Annie. "I can't use my titan because I need to maintain my cover. And obviously Bertholdt can't use his, because he'd be too slow. So you're going to have to be the one to grab Eren."

Annie nodded. She was ready to do whatever it took to make sure Eren was safe. She wasn't going to fail. She wouldn't _allow_ herself to fail, not when Eren's life was on the line. "Whatever it takes." She muttered with determination.

Reiner looked at her. Annie couldn't tell what he was thinking. "You know, a lot of our old classmates are going to be on this trip. You're going to have to be prepared to kill them, you got it?"

Annie flashed back to Trost, and Marco's horrific death. A death she was responsible for. Just thinking about it made her sick, but she swallowed her nausea and looked back at Reiner, determined. "I can handle it."

Reiner closed his eyes. "Good." He drew another x, closer to the edge of the formation. "This is where I'll be. The info I received on Eren's position may not be completely true. If that's the situation, Armin is near my position. His intuition has never failed us before, and it probably won't fail us now. I'll subtly ask him about where he thinks Eren is, once shit hits the fan. Find me, and I'll carve the information into your titan's hand."

Annie nodded.

"Good." Reiner said, pausing. "We'll get him, Annie. When we do, we'll bring him back home, safe and sound."

* * *

Eren was sitting down under a tree, and Annie rested her head in her lap. He stroked her hair slowly, wondering what was going on in her head. She had long since joined the military police, and now that he himself was a Scout, the two had very little time to spend with each other. She seemed pleasantly surprised to see him when he visited her and asked her to spend the day with him before he went on his trip, so he was pretty sure things were okay between them, but he couldn't help but think that she seemed a little more distant than usual.

"You sure it's okay that you're not at work?" He asked.

Annie shrugged off the question. "It isn't like I do anything there anyways. The senior officers in the MP are all lazy slackers. They probably won't even notice I'm gone."

Eren shrugged. "If you say so." He looked down and met her blue-gray eyes with his own. He again thought to himself how lucky he was. Yeah, sure, on the outside, Annie was cold and apathetic, but deep down inside, she was a wonderful person. She genuinely cared about him, and he cared about her.

"What?" Annie asked. "You're giving me that stupid look again."

Eren realized that he had been smiling. "Sorry. I just missed you a lot, is all."

A smile tugged at the corner of Annie's mouth. "I missed you too."

Eren looked up. "I wonder what Commander Erwin is trying to accomplish with this excursion."

"You don't know, then?" Annie asked.

Eren shook his head. He had asked, but Erwin hadn't answered. "He's keeping quiet about his intentions. Says it's classified. Must be super important, I guess."

"Try not to worry about it that much. How about we go out for lunch?"

Eren looked back down at Annie. "I don't have any money to pay for us."

Annie sat up and brushed the dirt off herself. "I do. Comes with being an MP, we get a decent amount of pay."

Eren looked away, bringing a hand up to his cheek. "I don't want you paying for me, Annie."

"Eren, do you want food or not?"

He did, so he reluctantly agreed. They walked around the district, looking for places to eat. Eren was a little surprised to see the quality of food. There were cuts of meat, cheese, and what looked to be those pastries that Eren had always heard about, but never even seen before.

"What do you want?" Annie asked.

"Whatever you're having is fine," Eren replied, trying to sound nonchalant. He wanted to try everything, but he also didn't want to be greedy with Annie's money. He already felt insecure that she was paying for him. He had never had a lot of money in his life, and being fed from money out of other people's pockets was not something he was comfortable with.

"Two sandwiches, two flasks of orange juice, and two pastries." Annie told a merchant, counting out coins in her hand. The vendor placed the food in a leather sack and held it out in one hand, and extended his other hand, palm out. Annie placed the coins in his hand and took the bag from him. Eren watched the transaction, feeling slightly guilty.

"Where do you want to eat?" Annie asked.

"Oh," Eren said, "I've got an idea."

Eren had seen the area on his way into the main city, and had been wanting to take Annie there at some point. It was right by a small river, with an elegant yet simple wooden bridge spanning the water. Off to the side was a small circular wooden gazebo, close enough to hear the soft trickling of the water running. Eren led her there, and they walked in silence, hand in hand.

The couple sat down on the gazebo floor and began to unpack their food. Eren passed Annie a sandwich, a flask of juice, and one of the pastries. "I'm sorry you had to pay for me," he said.

"Don't worry about it, Eren." Annie reassured him. "I don't mind. Besides, you're about to go on an expedition, it's the least I can do."

Annie's expression darkened at the mention of the excursion. Eren figured she was worried about him. going outside the walls like they he was about to do was, after all, very dangerous. It was only natural that she would be upset at the prospect of him leaving.

"Hey," Eren said, lifting her chin so that their faces were close, "don't worry, Annie. Everything's going to be fine. I'm going to come back to you, okay?"

"I know..." Annie said, but she didn't seem convinced. "It's just... I worry, Eren."

"Well, don't." Eren said. He put on a brave smile for her. "I promise I'll kill a whole bunch of titans for you."

Annie sighed, and kissed him on the cheek. "If you say so."

Eren took a bite of the sandwich. It was good. It had lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and some meat he was unfamiliar with, but enjoyed nonetheless. All the ingredients were fresh, and the bread was soft, unlike the hard loaves that were available for soldiers and the lower class. It was the first time he had ever tasted something this refined, this high-class. He savored every bite and was grateful Sasha wasn't around. She'd be able to sniff the sandwich from miles away, and would probably beat Eren up for it.

Eren took the glass flask and looked inside at the liquid inside. Orange juice, he had remembered Annie call it. Well, it was orange, and it was juice, but it couldn't be juice from actual oranges, could it? Those were only grown in the far interior and were super expensive. He took a sip. Sweet, delicious, and ever so slightly tart.

The pastry though, was the best part. It looked like sugary bread with an indent in the middle, which had been filled with fruit jam. Eren took a bite. And then, surprised by its delicious flavor and texture, took another, and another.

"Annie?" Eren asked, mouth full of food.

"What?" Annie replied.

"Thanks for lunch."

"Don't mention it."

"I love you, Annie."

Annie sighed again. "Well, you're an idiot." She placed her head on his shoulder anyways. "But I love you too."

* * *

Annie was grateful that Eren decided to walk her back to the station. It wasn't that she was scared or anything, she just preferred his company. It again struck her as odd that she had become so close with him. Under normal circumstances, she would have wanted to be left alone. Eren though, Eren was special. He was the only person whose company she didn't tire of after twenty seconds.

Apart from Mina that is. Annie's mind took her again to that street in Trost, after Eren had sealed the gate. The corpse that she had seen, gear broken, head bitten half-off, but otherwise intact. Intact enough, that is, for her to recognize the hairstyle. Long, dark hair tied in two short pigtails at her shoulders.

"I'm sorry..." She remembered telling the body of her best, probably only, friend. She knew that she was responsible for her death, or at the very minimum, involved.

"Sorry for what?" Eren asked.

Annie realized she had spoken out loud. "Oh. Nothing." She said, turning her head back down to the ground as they continued to walk. "I was just thinking about someone."

"It's Mina, isn't it?" Eren said, voice low.

Annie nodded. "How did you know?"

"Because she was your best friend." Eren replied. Annie saw him furrow his brow. "I'm sorry I couldn't save her."

Annie felt bad. Eren blamed himself for Mina's death, for all of their deaths, even though he wasn't the one involved with the group responsible. _She_ was. "It wasn't your fault." She said.

"If I hadn't stupidly gone to kill that titan, they wouldn't have followed me." Eren brooded. "My choice killed them. Their blood is on my hands. I'm not going to let it happen again."

"Let's not focus on that right now." Annie said, to which Eren nodded. Annie wished she could tell him everything, that it wasn't his fault but she knew she couldn't. Not yet at least.

"I just wish this world would be over. I want to be with you, peacefully, quietly, away from this. The titans, the needless death, everything." Eren said. "I don't want to live in a world where we're caged like animals, at the mercy of those damn titans.

They stopped in front of a wooden door with the insignia of the Military Police. "This is goodbye, I guess. At least, until I get back from the expedition."

Annie turned and grabbed Eren's shirt, pulling him down to her height, and kissed him softly. She savored the feeling of his lips on hers; she knew that it wasn't likely they'd do so again, at least for a long time. Even if she did succeed in her mission, and she brought him home with him, he would find out what was going on. There was no telling how he would react.

She pulled away from his lips and looked down, avoiding his gaze. "Good luck." She said. With that, she turned and stepped into Military Police headquarters and closed the door.

Hitch, Annie's roommate, was waiting for her inside. "I was wondering when you'd show up." She chided. "Is he the reason you skipped out on work today? Ooh, is he your boyfriend?"

Annie walked past Hitch without glancing at her. "That's none of your business." She didn't like Hitch much. She would always tease Annie in an effort to provoke a reaction, much to Annie's annoyance.

Hitch giggled. "Then I guess you wouldn't mind if I went and had a little fun with him."

Annie turned and snarled. "Touch him and I'll break all of your fingers and toes." She hated the idea of anybody trying to make a move on Eren. She knew Eren would never cheat on her, but didn't anybody respect the sanctity of a romantic relationship?

"So he is your boyfriend." Hitch teased. "Shame. He's cute. You'd better keep him close, or else I might wind up in his pants. How is he in bed?"

Annie suppressed the urge to grab the nearest blunt object and beat Hitch over the head with it. She began walking up the stairs to their shared room, dreading tomorrow.

Why did Eren love her? What was there to love? Annie had always regarded herself as a person unworthy of any care or affection, much less _love._ But Eren said that he loved her, and he meant it. She had figured out that when he was lying or hiding something, his ears flushed slightly red, and they never did when he said those words. Why? What did he see in her? She knew exactly what she saw in him. His drive, passion, dedication to his ideals... Annie found it inspiring, and was a trait she herself had. His compassion, and loyalty, other traits that she found attractive in him. He never gave up either, no matter what happened he continued to fight. For God's sake, he was more or less killed, and even that didn't stop him. But she didn't believe she had any redeeming qualities.

Which begged the question, would he continue to love her after tomorrow? Somehow, she doubted it. If they succeeded and brought him back home, they would have to explain everything eventually, and he was more likely to hate her.

The thought of Eren hating her opened up a hollow void in Annie's chest. But the thought of him dying with everyone else inside the walls made her feel even worse.

 _It's okay if he hates me for the rest of our lives_ Annie thought, _as long as he's alive, I can put up with it._


	9. Chapter 9

So this chapter is long as shit, but that's kind of all it has going on for it. There's no Anie/Eren interaction, cuz this chapter is where Annie chases after the scouts to capture Eren. Subsequently they don't get a chance to talk or anything, so just a heads-up before you jump down my throat or anything.

Also a big shoutout to xdmath for promoting this fic on tumblr and for being A+ loyal to this fic since day 1. Also, I've finished my EreAnnie fanart and that's what you see as the new icon for this fanfiction. So yeah.

* * *

Chapter 9:

Annie stood atop the wall, watching the Scouts depart, their horses kicking up a storm of dirt behind them. She knew Eren was in that group somewhere, and that she had to under any circumstances, bring him back home with her. Failure was not an option.

She waited until they had ventured out of sight, and then leaped off the wall. She fired off the cables of her gear-or rather, Marco's gear, which she had recovered sometime after, and hooked onto a pair of two trees to slow her descent, and when her inertia transferred and spun her in a arc, she released and flung forward.

It was the first time since training that she had used 3DM gear in a forest. It brought back memories of her and Eren sneaking off into the treeline for some time away, or the deerskin blanket he gave to her, that she left back in her room. She would return for it, one day.

 _That's far enough,_ Annie thought. _Nobody should see me transform._

She couldn't flick the blade of her ring out while using the maneuver gear, so she brought her hand up to her mouth. She bit down, and tasted iron as she broke spin.

 _Recover Eren._ She thought in her mind. The combination of visualizing her goal and self-harm initiated the transformation. A lightning bolt struck Annie, and she could feel the electricity course through her, numbing her body. Warmth flooded her and she felt the flesh materializing and fusing to her body. She could feel herself lifting up off the ground, and opened her eyes.

Except, they weren't her eyes anymore. They were her titan's eyes.

Annie started running towards the group. "Follow the plan." She thought.

Her titan body could push itself much farther than her actual body could. Annie was grateful for that, because she didn't think her actual body could run for so long at this pressure. She noticed a couple of titans begin to notice her and start following her.

 _Good,_ Annie thought, _just like that._

More titans began noticing as Annie made her way across the plains towards the Survey Corps. The idea was actually suggested by Reiner. Mass a group of titans to follow her, and the Scouts would have their hands busy dealing with them, taking a lot of the pressure off Annie and freeing her up to take Eren.

A red smoke flare went up to her right. It had begun. Annie changed direction and headed over to where the flare came from. Two scouts on horseback came into view. There was very little to grab onto with maneuver gear hooks, and both Annie and her targets knew it. Annie realized that the titans were no longer following her. They must have gone for easier, smaller prey.

 _First, get in between them._ Annie thought. _If I can do that, they'll get scared. Sloppy. They should be easy to pass afterwards._ Annie sprinted forwards, and stomped her foot in between the two riders, separating them.

Annie felt a prick, and then a tugging at the flesh on the nape of her titan's neck. _Dammit. They're going on the offensive._

A cry rang out as a Scout drew towards Annie. Annie reached up and snatched him out of the air not a meter and a half from her neck. Anger flooded her system. _I didn't want to have to kill any of you,_ she thought ferociously, _but if you try to stop me from getting to him, I have no problem slaughtering every last one of you._ She squeezed his body, and could feel bones crushing as he went limp. Another scout had hooked on. Annie grabbed the wire and flung his body into the ground, pulverizing him.

She stopped for a second, realization ebbing into her consciousness. _I just killed two human beings..._ A small part of her thought. The bigger part of her snapped back, _Worry about that later. You have a job to do. Besides... You aren't like these people._

Annie spotted another rider and barreled towards it. He was a carrying the reins of another horse, and as Annie approached, it released said horse. Annie looked down. Somebody she knew? She jumped, placing both feet on either side of the rider and causing the ground to shake violently. The rider was flung off his horse and hit the ground.

 _Check if it's Eren..._ Annie thought. She knelt down behind the still figure and lifted it 's hood. She peered under and recognized the blonde boy. _Oh._ She thought, _It's just Armin. Weak, intelligent, cowardly Armin... Should I kill him?_ She toyed with the idea in her head. _No. Eren would never forgive me if I killed his best friend._

Annie stood up and left him. Without a rider, he was as good as dead. Another titan would be along soon enough, Annie thought, and ran on.

After a couple minutes of running, Annie glanced back, completely on a whim. Just in time, however, to see three hooded figures chasing her. She stopped and turned, and felt a 3DM hook glance off of her achilles tendon. She swung her hand back, creating a gust of wind and blowing off the hood of one of the riders. A swing of her other arm knocked the horse out from under another and sent him crashing into the ground.

She knelt down. He was bloodied and bruised, but there was no mistaking him. It was Armin. _How did he catch up? Did the other two bring him a new horse?_ It didn't matter. He had tried to get in the way of her getting to Eren. _I'll kill him..._ She thought. But before she could act, a she felt tugging on the right side of her back. She turned and saw the other rider, Jean, probably, and turned. She swung out her hand to grab him. Jean ducked and evaded the hand, however. Annie had forgotten that Jean was the best 3DM user in their class. He could turn on a coin. Annie saw him swing behind her and knew what he was going to do next.

Bringing a hand up to her nape to protect her human body, Annie felt another hook connect with her back. She clenched her fist. _Sorry, Jean._ She thought, _But you're going to die now._

"Jean!" Armin's voice called out from beneath him. "Don't let that suicidal bastard have died for nothing!"

 _What?_ Annie thought, faltering. _Eren isn't dead. He couldn't be dead, could he?_ Doubt clouded Annie's mind. _Did Armin figure out that I'm looking for him? Is he just trying to confuse me?_

"She did it! She's the one who killed him! She led the titans to the right wing, where he was, and now the right flank has been crushed!"

 _No,_ Annie thought, _That can't be true. He would have transformed, I would have seen the lightning bolt... Right?_

"He's dead, all thanks to her! I saw his body stuck to the bottom of her foot, she killed him!"

 _Now that can't possibly be true._ Annie thought, _I didn't step on anybody, and I didn't even touch the flank. He's trying to confuse me._

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Reiner to her right, blades cocked back and ready to swing. She gave a dry smile. It was a pretty good farce. If Annie didn't know any better, she would have thought that he actually was trying to kill her.

Annie brought her hand up and snatched Reiner out of the air. She could feel him using his blade to etch into her titan's hand. She pretended to squeeze, and Reiner pretended to writhe in pain. Reiner finished carving his message and slashed off two of Annie's fingertips, freeing himself from her grasp and swinging back down to the ground.

Annie looked at the carving Reiner had left in her hand. It was a crudely drawn map of the formation, with an x marking the center rear. That's where Eren would be.

Annie stood up and ran in the direction of her lover. _I'm coming, Eren._

* * *

Eren rode on. He had trained in horseback riding with the cadets, but he had never gotten adjusted to the bouncing of horse's run. His rear end was pretty sore by the end of it. He wondered how the others were doing. Mikasa, Armin, Connie, Sasha, Reiner, Bertholdt, Christa, hell, he even wondered if Jean was doing alright. Sure they had their share of disagreements, but he was still a comrade, and to some degree, however slight, a friend. Besides, Jean had become a different person since Trost. More reliable, more dependable, more selfless. Maybe it had to do with Marco's death, but Jean seemed to have realized how selfish he was being and had dedicated his life to a cause greater than himself. Whatever the reason was, Eren was grateful that horse-boy had finally pulled his swollen head out of his ass.

A messenger rode up next to them. "Sir," the man said, "message from the front lines. The right flank has been wiped out by a titan ambush. All relay activity is spotty and unreliable on that side."

Eren's heart crawled up into his throat. That's where most of his friends were positioned. Did they make it out okay?

"Black smoke. Eren, fire off the signal." Levi called over the sound of the wind whipping past them.

Eren looked up and saw the trail of black vapor writhing to their right. "Yes sir." He replied, loading his flare gun with a black round. He raised it, pointing it skywards, and relayed the message, sending his own snake of black vapor up.

 _This is bad._ Eren thought, _I'm glad Annie is safe in the interior._

As they galloped on, a forest came into view directly ahead of them.

"Captain Levi!" Eren shouted, "Which way are we going?"

"Forward." Levi replied simply. Eren was bewildered. Wouldn't that take them directly into the forest? It was impossible to maintain a formation in there. The left flank, and what remained of the right, would have to break off and go around the forest.

"Are you sure?" Eren replied.

"Yes." Levi called out, "Now shut up."

Eren closed his mouth and did his best not to let his mind dwell on it, but as they entered the forest and the trees obscured their vision of any threats, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

"Sir," he called out after a few minutes of riding through the forest.

"What?" Levi answered, annoyed.

"What are we doing here? This forest is reducing our visibility, we won't see a titan until it's right in front of us. We have no reinforcements. What are we supposed to do if the titan that took out the right flank shows up?"

"Shut up and let it go already." Levi snapped, still not turning around. "Look at all these big ass trees. We can easily use our maneuver gear here. Calm down and use your head. If a threat shows up, we'll deal with it."

Confusion took Eren's mind. He looked around at his squadmates, all of whom looked just as unsure and scared as he felt. Did none of them know what was going on? What they were doing? Did Levi himself even know?

A black smoke round went off behind them. The titan was fast approaching. Eren's squad members expressed themselves.

"It's right behind us!" Gunther exclaimed.

"It's been on our tail ever since we came into the forest." Eld muttered.

Levi spoke up. "Blades out, now." He called, as he drew the swords from his gear. "It'll be quick. Be ready."

Eren turned and saw a scout using his maneuver gear, fling about ten meters off the ground. And then, faster than he appeared, a fleshy hand materialized from behind the trees and smacked the soldier out of the air. The rest of the body followed, a large, female body that was lean, deadly, icy.

Panic rang through Eren like a bell.

"Move it!" Levi shouted. And suddenly, the titan was behind them. Eren could feel it reaching out, missing his cloak by mere inches. His heart raced like an olympic athlete.

"Shit! It's here!" Oluo called out.

"How are we supposed to perform evasive action here?" Gunther demanded.

"Captain, can we use our 3DM gear?" Petra pleaded. "Levi, please!"

More scouts appeared behind the female titan, swinging from the trees with their gear. One shot a hook out at the titan's neck, and the titan dodged and yanked the line down, slamming the scout into a nearby tree, painting the bark a deep, red hue. It grabbed the line on the other scout's gear and yanked him back, snatching him midair and crushing him, allowing his limp, lifeless body to fall to the ground.

Eren could only watch in horror as all of this happened around him. This titan, slaughtering his comrades with brutal efficiency, forcing her way to them.

"Captain!" Petra screamed, "Orders, please!"

"It's dangerous!" Oluo agreed, "We need to take it out, now!"

Eld drew his blade. "I'll cut that bitch into thin red ribbons!" He snarled. "Just give the order, sir!"

Erd's determination broke Eren's panic, and Eren was reminded of why he joined. Titan slaying was his business, it was all of their business. _You stupid idiot,_ he thought, _you're chasing the best titan killers mankind has to offer._

He turned to Levi, who was still riding on. Had he even looked back?

The rest of the squad was screaming. "Captain!" "Orders, sir, please!" "We need to kill it now!" "It's gaining on us!" "Please, orders!"

"Squad," Levi spoke, finally, "cover your ears, now."

The rest of the squad looked at him, unsure if they had heard him right. "You wanted an order, didn't you?" He stated more than asked. He loaded a shell into his flare pistol, but it didn't look like a smoke flare. Eren covered his ears like he was told, and was grateful, because it was not a smoke round Levi fired off. It was a sound grenade. A hideous metallic ringing pierced the forest like a knife. Levi turned around.

"What's our objective as soldiers? Is it to act on our whims, trusting our own judgment rather than that of our superiors? No, our job is to keep this brat alive. We keep moving forward."

"But for how long?" Eren implored, "We can't run from her for much longer."

A pair of scouts appeared, chasing the female titan. "No!" Eren screamed. "They keep trying to kill her! If we don't do something, they're all going to die!"

"Shut up, Eren. Keep moving forward." Eld ordered.

"They need out help!" Eren argued. He turned in time to see the female titan splatter one of the scouts to a tree. "Another one just died! Goddammit you guys, he didn't have to die! Come on, we can still save the other one!"

"Follow orders, Eren! Stay the course!"

Eren couldn't believe this. After all of the needless death happening behind them, for _his_ sake, Eren was the only one who felt remotely obligated to kill the titan behind them. At this rate, she would kill everyone on the expedition. That couldn't happen, Eren promised Annie he would return. He wasn't going to break that promise. Did none of them else care that all of their comrades were dying? "Are you guys fucking out of your minds?! If we don't kill it, who will?!"

"Shut up, Eren!" Oluo screamed.

 _Fine._ Eren said, sheathing his sword in his gear, _I don't need you guys to help me kill her. I can do it on my own._ Eren brought up his hand to his mouth and prepared to bite. _I'll kill it, and make it back to Annie, safe and sound._

"Eren, NO!" Petra screamed. "Don't do it!"

"Go ahead if you want." Levi's overruled Petra. "Make your choice, and live with the consequences. If you want to fight her, I'll help, and the rest of the squad will too. Decide but do it now."

Eren toyed with the idea. Could he? With the entire squad, and his titan form, it would probably be more than easy... But what if it wasn't? What if it killed all of them anyways? He would never see her face again... _Annie._

He saw the bite mark on Petra's hand. Thought of Annie. Thought of all he stood to lose. And then he put his hand down and gripped the reins again. "Okay, fine! I'm with you!"

Eren turned and looked up. He saw her face, the titan's face, and something struck him as familiar. What was it?

Rapid fire hookshot broke his concentration as hundreds of cables latched onto the titan, immobilizing her. "They're going to take her alive?" Eren wondered, "Was that the mission objective?"

It didn't matter. All Eren knew was that his decision had paid off. He was going to see Annie again, real soon.

* * *

 _Helpless._ That's how Annie felt, unable to move from the cables. A setback at the least, failure at the worst.

She heard the sound of 3DM gear, and felt a pair of feet on her head. "Hey." He sneered, "We know you're in there. Why don't you come on out? It'll be a lot easier on all of us."

Annie wanted desperately to smash this jackass against the ground and grind him to a bloody pulp. She channelled all of her frustration onto him and tried to move her arm, to no avail.

"If you're thinking of moving, or escaping, don't. You'll just tire yourself out." He continued, "What you should think about are the good men and women you killed today. And for what? Your own, selfish reasons? Or do you just enjoy it? If you do, I suppose we have that in common. I like killing titans, you like killing people."

 _No,_ Annie thought, _that's not why I did it... I just wanted him to be safe. I want to take him back home with me, where we can be away from everything. Even if he hates me for it._

"You know, one of our members has a strange fixation with the titans. Unlike the rest of us, she's absolutely in lvoe with them and wants to study them at any cost. Do you mind if we cut off your arms and legs to give to her as specimens?"

 _Good luck trying._ Annie thought, _Your blades won't break through my skin when I harden it._

"I'm not talking about your titan's limbs, of course. I mean your human limbs. They'll just grow back anways."

 _No,_ Annie thought, _you won't get the chance._

With that, Annie let out an inhuman shriek. Birds flew off the branches of the trees, creating a loud rustle throughout the forest, but apart from that, silence. Annie wondered briefly if she had failed. Were any other titans within earshot?

Yes. Loud footsteps rumbled through the forest. Annie braced herself as a swathe of titans broke through the treeline and swarmed. The scouts tried desperately to hold them off, and Annie grinned as the titans ignored them and lumbered towards her.

"Hey," said the voice on top of her head, "what, you called friends?"

 _That's right._ Annie thought, _Now get the hell off me._

The man obliged, jumping off Annie and killing a titan. But there were way too many. They swarmed, ignoring he humans and lumbering for Annie. They began to sink their teeth into her flesh. Annie felt each bite on her titan's self. She closed her eyes and separated her consciousness from her titan to her human body.

Flesh tore off of the titan's neck and Annie could see outside. She jumped and fired hooks onto a tree, reeling herself in. She turned to see that the scouts had left. But they hadn't all taken their gear with them. Annie grabbed a green cloak, embroidered with the Wings of Freedom, and donned it. In the same tree, she found a flare gun and a bag of flares. Whoever left this stuff must have been in a hurry. She loaded a green flare and fired it. A few seconds passed, but another plume of green smoke shot up, not too far away.

"Eren, I promise I'll keep you safe." Annie said, engaging her gear and speeding off into direction of the smoke, "Whatever it takes!"

She had never gone so fast on 3DM gear before. Annie's sense of determination was reignited, and she hurled between the trees recklessly, almost without regard for her own life. She saw a figure speeding by. Annie drew her blade and slashed, and kept going. She could see Eren and the rest of his squad now. She saw the confusion and remorse in his eyes, not understanding why this was happening.

Guilt. But it was for Eren's sake, she reminded herself. She was doing this for him, for the only person that she had ever felt any affection towards in her _life._

 _Get Eren,_ Annie thought as she dug her teeth into her hand.

And then she was a titan again, lumbering for Eren. She was far too concentrated on her objective to make out what they said, but Eren and his squad exchanged words, and then Eren took off without them, while they remained. And from the look of things, it was about to get bloody.

 _So be it._ One of the scouts charged her, and when Annie reached out to grab him, he changed directions, avoiding her grasp. Annie widened her eyes as the other two flew straight at her face. She felt a searing pain in her eyes, and then she couldn't see anything.

Annie backed up, grabbing her nape with her hand to protect it. The humans slashed away at her arms, and Annie knew what they were doing. They were going to hack away at her shoulders until she couldn't keep her arms up.

She focused on regaining her sight. She didn't need both eyes, just one, so she channeled all of her energy into a single eye. The scouts hacked at her relentlessly. Annie could feel her arm about to drop. She needed to get her sight back. Almost there...

Her arms dropped, and Annie opened her right eye just in time to see a flutter of movement. Without the use of her arms, Annie did the only thing she could. She bit down.

Blood poured into her titan's mouth and she spat it, and the body, out. Even in titan form, the thought of eating people wasn't very satisfactory to Annie. Another scout was flying low. Almost too easy. Annie ran, leaped, and crushed the scout with her foot against a tree. More movement... Annie saw it happen just in time, and hardened the skin on her nape, forming the crystal right as the metal blade connected. The blade snapped, and she turned to see its owner, and kicked in into another tree.

She could see Eren turn around and head towards her, and was for a second, regretful at the lives she had just taken.

 _Eren,_ she thought, _I did it for you... I'll explain it all later, but I promise, I was only thinking about keeping you safe..._

Annie watched as Eren brought his wrist up to his mouth and bit down. A flash of lightning, searing heat, a cloud of steam, and suddenly, Eren wasn't Eren anymore. He was a fifteen-meter slaughtering machine, capable of destruction beyond human comprehension.

Annie watches Eren's fist as he lumbers towards her, arm locked back and ready to punch. She sidesteps his uppercut and delivers a swift kick to his stomach. Eren grabs her foot and launches her backwards and to the ground. Annie felt a surge of pride-it was a move she had taught him.

 _Eren,_ Annie thought to herself, _I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt you._

Eren threw a flurry of punches at Annie's head. Annie ducked and evaded punch after punch, but one connected and sent her to the ground again. She got up and turned the other direction, backing off to try to regain control of the situation. She didn't want to hurt him, but he didn't know it was her, and had no reason to hold back.

More punches, more dodging, more being sent to the ground. This time though, Eren pinned her down so she couldn't get back up and brought up his left fist, ready to pound Annie's face into the ground. He swung downward, and Annie moved her head to the left just in time. Bone broke through muscle and tore into the air as Eren's fist plowed into the ground, more than his titan's body could handle. He reared his right hand back.

 _Eren, please..._ Annie tried to convey with her one good eye, _It's me..._

Roaring, Eren drove his right fist into the ground and Annie shifted her head again to avoid a potential incapacitation blow. He sat up on top of her, screaming, while smoke billowed from his broken hands.

 _Eren, stop... It's me... It's Annie, your Annie. I don't want to hurt you._

Eren didn't read the message though. He stared at her in blinding rage.

* * *

 _You killed them all!_ Eren thought. _I should have fought back when I had the chance... When I had the first urge to kill you I should have listened to it. We had the whole squad, and Captain Levi too. We would have won! We would have killed you! But now, they're all dead!_ Grief and anger melded into one as Eren fixated on the monster underneath him. _Because of **you**!" _

Eren leaned in close, snarling. His nose was an inch away from the female titan's, and he tried to speak. _Your fault! You hear me?_ His titan couldn't form the words though, and it came out as primal, guttural rumbling and screaming. _Once my hands heal, I'm going to rip to you to tiny pieces!_

The titan grabbed onto his hand and wrapped its leg around Eren. It slid out from under him and Eren tried to swing his fist at it. She closed the distance and grabbed onto him, locked her leg back, and hit him with a kick that smashed him into a tree thirty meters away.

Eren got up and let anger be his guide. Fuck technique, to hell with form. He didn't care about that, all he cared about was _sending this bitch to hell._

Jab, cross, hook. The female titan dodged all of them. That's all she was doing, dodging and escaping holds. _Stop holding back,_ Eren thought, t _ry to kill me like you killed all of my friends! Fight me, you stupid animal!_

She fell to the ground and Eren screamed at her, readying his fist for another punch. He swung, and she jumped out of the way again. _Stop running away!_ Eren demanded. _Fight back, you god damn monster!_

As if reading his thoughts, Eren saw a glint, a reflection of light, shine off of her hand, and she punched his jaw. _Yes._ Eren thought, _Just like that!_ He swung his own fist into the titan's gut, sending her into the air and crashing back down. He ran towards her and shot forward with his knee, but she dodged again, and Eren hit the tree she was resting against.

He stopped to catch her breath for a second and turned to fight.

 _Focus, Eren._ He told himself. _Think about this. Just like Annie showed you. Hands up, guarding either side of your face. Legs wide, but not too wide._ Eren took the fighting stance he had learned from Annie.

What? What was that?

Was she... Copying him?

Eren was too busy staring to notice the foot swinging at him until it had sheared his titan's head clean off.

* * *

 _I left the nape intact._ Annie thought. _I did it. Eren, I'm sorry, but this was for your own good._ Walking over to where the titan's carcass lay, Annie opened her mouth wide. It wasn't going to be comfortable, or dignifying, but she needed to be able to use both hands while she was fighting. She bit down, shearing off the entire nape of Eren's titan. out sprung a completely intact Eren, still fused from the waist down. That was okay. Annie spit out the flesh in her mouth and bit down into Eren's titan again, being careful not to hurt Eren. She tore him out of the titan's body and sucked him into her mouth.

Annie took off again, but she didn't get very far before hearing the whirring and hissing of maneuver gear. Someone had followed her.

"Give him back!" Annie recognized Mikasa's voice. Pain in her right cheek as Mikasa dragged her blades along them, and then on her thigh, and then the other thigh. Annie reached out to grab her but she evaded, and slashed Annie's nose.

"Give him **back**!" Mikasa screamed. Annie felt the blades tear away at the back of her knee, and she fell to the floor on three out of four limbs, with her left hand protecting her weak spot.

Annie hardened the skin on her hand as Mikasa hacked at them, and used the precious time to recover. There is a reason Mikasa graduated at the top of their class, and it wasn't because she did obscene things to get there like Hitch did.

Annie turned and slammed her free hand into the tree where Mikasa was perched, but a second too late. She had already jumped off. No matter. Annie's leg had healed, and she got up to run again.

It's hard to gauge how far you run when you're fourteen meters high. A kilometer? Two? Hell, ten? _Maybe I lost them,_ Annie thought after awhile.

Hissing around her feet. Annie saw a figure hovering in front of her. Had Mikasa come back? More hissing above her head. Yes, Mikasa had come back, and she had brought company with her. Was that captain Levi?

God dammit. Mikasa on her own was bad enough. Annie wasn't sure if she could handle both of them.

* * *

 **Author's note:** I've been thinking about this for awhile, but here's what I've decided that I'll do. This fic itself will continue to follow the events of the anime/manga, that is, they'll go back to stohess and try to trick annie, and annie will try to capture eren again, et cetera, however I will also write another fic in which Annie succeeds in capturing Eren and bringing him back to her village, cuz I REALLY wanna see how that plays out. This second concept will begin right where this chapter leaves off. So yeah, I'm going to be writing out two separate timelines. The link for the other fic is here: s/11852312/1/Ruin-Me and as of now I've already published the first chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

I've been getting a lot of positive feedback regarding "Ruin Me," I'm so glad you guys like it. I'm sorry updates are going a little bit slow, but here you go. This chapter has no Eren/Annie interaction, Ihope you like it anyways. Probably one or two more chapters left of this, and then that's it for this fic. I'm glad you guys have stuck around so long. :)

* * *

Chapter 10:

Annie couldn't focus. The flurry of blades spinning around her, carving into her titan form and weakening it before it had time to regenerate, was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. _No wonder they call him humanity's strongest soldier,_ Annie thought.

She wanted with all her might to stop him, and Mikasa. They were, after all, trying to take Eren away from her.

Annie felt a hook grab onto the back of her neck. Someone, probably Mikasa, was going in for the kill. Annie crystallized the skin of her nape as she brought up her hand, ready to snatch Mikasa out of the air. But she felt a force, two human feet, land on her hand, and leap against it, preventing Annie from grabbing Mikasa. Levi jumped off of her hand and used the momentum to slash at the muscles in her jaw.

 _No,_ Annie thought, as she tried in vain to keep her mouth from opening. It was no use. Her lower jaw dropped, and Eren was exposed. _Please, don't do this. I'm sorry for hurting your friends, don't do this._

Levi had landed in her mouth and pulled out Eren, and shot away again with the gear. _No, please,_ Annie thought, _don't take him away from me._

She could feel tears begin to stream down her face. _Please, give him back. He isn't safe with you... Please, I love him._

* * *

Eren looked at Armin in disbelief. "You can't be serious... This is Annie we're talking about... How could she be the female titan? She was inside Stohess district, safe and sound. Where's your evidence?"

Armin refused to meet Eren's gaze, but he spoke nonetheless. "The female titan knew what you looked life before her attack. And, she reacted to my use of your nickname, 'suicidal bastard'. Only our cadet class knew about that. But the main reason I think it's her is because I think she's the one who killed Hanji's test subjects."

"What makes you say that?" Eren snapped defensively. He refused to believe any of it, not without solid proof. He _could't_ believe it. Annie, his sweet princess, despite being outwardly cold, was no murderer. Besides, what motivation could she possibly have?

"The titans were killed at the same time, which required the user to be extremely familiar with the gear they were using."

"But the equipment inspection. Annie checked out!" He said, remembering the day. Annie had come to visit him after she had inspected her gear. It was cold, so the two had spent the rest of the day staying indoors, warming up by the fire. He could remember her touch, her warmth, her kiss.

"But it wasn't her gear that she presented." Armin replied grimly. "It was Marco's."

Eren wasn't following. How could he? Armin's logic was bouncing all over the place. "What does Marco have to do with this?" He demanded.

"I don't know," Armin admitted, "but I recognized the same scrapes and dents from when the two of us did gear maintenance together."

"You're just imagining things." Eren defended. "There's no way Annie would do anything like that."

"I'm not making this up." Armin assured. "I'm telling you, Annie was in possession of Marco's gear."

Eren looked up and realized that Jean was sitting across the table. He looked far away. He was probably wondering the same thing, trying to fit Marco into the puzzle that already didn't make sense. Eren felt bad for him. He remembered how close the two of them were.

"Is there anything else?" Levi asked.

Mikasa offered, "Well, she certainly looks like the female titan."

That set off Eren. Couldn't she have offered anything that wasn't circumstantial at best? "What the fuck, Mikasa? What kind of evidence is that?" He demanded.

"So basically, we don't know for sure." Levi summed up.

Eren couldn't believe any of it. "This is insane. What if it's not her? What if you're wrong?"

"If it isn't her, then she's cleared of suspicion," Mikasa answered.

"Eren," Armin implored, "this is our only chance. Either we take it, or the government condemns you."

"I don't care." Eren answered. "This is Annie. You don't know her like I do, she wouldn't do that!"

"Eren," Mikasa's voice was icy and steely, "when you fought the female titan, did anything ring a bell? Anything remind you of Annie?"

Eren flashed back to his bout with the female titan. He thought she had been copying his stance, but... No, that was ridiculous. It couldn't be Annie. Similar style, if that's what it even was, could be chalked up to sheer coincidence.

Annie would never hurt people, not without a good reason.

* * *

A couple of days later, Annie woke up in her bed back in Stohess. Anguish took her mind and she thought to herself, _I failed._ Yes, she had failed at her mission, failed to capture Eren and now he was back within the walls. In danger.

She pushed off the sheets, and her deerskin blanket, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She wanted Eren nearby, but who knows where he was now?

He occupied her thoughts as she slipped on her clothes and looked up to see that Hitch had already left. _Couldn't have woken me up?_ She thought, annoyed. She finished putting on her hoodie and pants and slipped on her MP jacket, so she opened the door and made her way downstairs, thoughts still lingering on her boyfriend.

She was faintly aware that the others were talking about her, but she didn't care. She wasn't like these people.

Their commanding officer walked down with a small stack of papers in his hand. "Alright, we've got actual work for you today instead of the same old shit. Eren Yeager is going to be passing through Stohess on his way to the capital." Annie perked up at the sound of Eren's name. She waited for the commander to continue. "We are to escort him and make sure no harm comes to him during his passing through. 3DM use is authorized for a short time."

"Sir," Marlo asked, "what are we protecting him from? I know there are petty criminals inside the walls, but I sincerely doubt they'd try and openly rebel against the king by harming Eren. And we're far away from any titans, so..."

 _That's what_ you _think,_ Annie thought.

The commander was not impressed. "Well, if you're so smart, you can handle it from here." He said, shoving the paperwork in Marlo's chest, evidently glad to be rid of it. Nothing but a slacker, Annie thought.

Unsure of himself, Marlo reluctantly accepted. He led the cadets outside. Marlo, for all of his ambition, wasn't very assertive. He had drive, but no actual initiative, Annie thought. She could see his sincerity in the way he talked about his goals.

"Once I'm in charge, I'll ensure that everyone who commits crimes pays for them. It's not that complicated, the Military Police just needs some discipline to restore them to their former glory."

Hitch had begun to crack up, howling with laughter in the floor. "Wow, you're something else!" She jeered between laughs.

Boris, the salt-and-pepper haired MP next to Marlo, however, didn't find it amusing. Or at least, he didn't show it. "That's a pretty high goal. Good luck with that stuff, or whatever."

"What's the point?" Annie found herself saying. Marlo's drive, passion, reminded her of Eren. But she couldn't bring himself to admire someone who was so unsure of himself that it got in the way of his goals. She felt that if push ever came to shove, Marlo would buckle and slide into submission.

The rest of the squad turned to her. Annie didn't speak to them much, so the fact that she was talking had probably surprised them. "If a goodie two-shoes like you ever wound up in charge, you wouldn't have any support at all." She continued.

Marlo regarded her, looking defensive. "That's the first thing I get to hear you say? Really?"

"I can tell you're sincere." Annie said, disregarding the comment. "You aren't the first person I've met who thought he could take on the world, make a change for the better. Going against the flow like that, it takes guts." She thought about Eren. He had the guts, not only to challenge the status quo, but to openly work against it. His most attractive quality, Eren thought.

"Guts," Annie followed, "or sheer stupidity."

Marlo looked away and crossed his arms. "I'm not like that. Come on, let's get to our station."

A short ten minute walk and they found themselves nearing their position. Marlo stopped and Hitch, not paying attention, had bumped into him. "Hey, watch it, asshole." She snapped, but stopped when she took a look at the scene in front of them. Two MP's were loading crates of gear, bearing the Military Police emblem, onto a merchant ship while a merchant— Annie could tell he was a merchant by his attire, fancy and expensive even by Sina standards— watched them. When they had finished loading the crates, the merchant passed a cloth bag to the MP's. One of the officers reached into the bag and pulled out a coin, and inspecting it, seemed satisfied. He took the bag and stuffed it into his pockets, and the two MP's exchanged goodbyes with the merchant.

"Selling government property illegally?!" Marlo snarled under his breath. He walked towards the duo. Annie was startled. She wasn't expecting him to actually do anything.

"What are you looking at, rookie?" The one on the right demanded.

"Selling government equipment is illegal." Marlo said shakily.

"Yeah?" The older man said, feigning ignorance.

Marlo looked at the ground. "The citizens paid for that gear with their own tax money. I'm going to have to report you—"

The guard laughed. "Threatening a superior officer? I like your style, kid." He smiled a mischievous smile and fished a coin out of the bag, slipping it into Marlo's breast pocket. "Go spend it on a girl. Unwind a little bit."

Annie expected Marlo to simply accept it as a failed attempt and learn from the experience. If he was smart, at least. But he proved himself an idiot. As the MP's were walking away, Marlo turned and grabbed one of their shoulders. "Selling government property is against the _law_!"

In a flash, the older MP slammed the butt of his rifle into Marlo's gut. Marlo went down, coughing and sputtering. His rifle, unslung, clattered away. The guard continued to beat the defenseless newbie, and just as Annie predicted, Marlo didn't lift a finger to stop him. Sliding into submission.

It was almost saddening.

Annie walked towards the three, and when the older MP brought down his rifle again, she caught his arm. Good thing too, judging by the force of the blow and the direction it was going in, it probably would have broken Marlo's nose.

"That's enough, I think." Annie said calmly, "Don't you, sir?"

Hitch had run forward too. "Sorry our dumbass caused you trouble, sir. We won't let it happen again, we promise." Her voice lowered. "Besides. You've already caused quite a scene."

The officer looked around at the crowd that had accumulated to watch him beat up Marlo, looking on in disgust and disbelief. The officer played along and cleared his throat. "Next time I won't be so lenient," he said, facing about and walking away.

Annie looked down at Marlo. He was fixated on his rifle, which was within arm's reach. His arm shakily stretched out towards it, and Annie knew what he wanted to do.

"Go ahead." she said, "You said you were going to make criminals pay, didn't you? I'll even help you if you want."

Marlo clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it against the ground. Just as Annie had suspected. Drive, but no resolve. Sliding into submission. Pathetic.

"The other person you mentioned, the other fool who goes 'against the flow'... Would they have done it?"

Annie thought about Eren, and his personality, how he would have reacted. He was so volatile. The slightest things would set him off. If his goals were the same as Marlo's, rather than focused on titan slaughter, he would have no problem killing corrupt officials. He definitely would have.

Maybe it was pity, but Annie decided to spare Marlo's feelings. "He might have." She answered.

"I wanted to be brave." Marlo said, "I'm not. I'm just another piece of trash, going wherever the flow takes me."

"Be grateful for it." Annie said. "It comes with being ordinary. You have no idea how lucky ordinary people are." She looked up at the sky. More than anything, she wanted to have been born with the chance at being an ordinary girl. A girl without secrets, without anything to fear from getting to have known people. She could have had friends, and she wouldn't feel so conflicted about her mission, and Eren's part in it.

She pushed the fantasy from her mind. She wasn't ordinary, she was Annie Leonhardt.

* * *

"Annie," a voice whispered from the alley. Annie waited until the rest of the MP's had passed, and then turned to the right. A hooded figure stood in the shadows, with round blonde hair and big blue eyes.

"So you're an honorary MP, huh?" he asked.

"Armin?" Annie looked on in disbelief. She wasn't sure how a weak coward like him could survive an entire excursion out of the walls, and with all his limbs, but there it was, right in front of her. There was a strange look in his eyes, something that Annie registered as _shifty._ A look of wariness, caution.

"What's with the getup?" Annie asked.

"Oh, it's to conceal my 3DM gear." He said, opening his cloak to reveal a set of 3DM gear. What did he need that for?

"What do you want?" She asked.

"Annie, we're going to help Eren escape, but we need you for our plan to work."

"Escape? Where?" Annie asked. "Where in these walls could you possibly hide from the government?"

"It won't be for a long time." Armin answered. "We're going to come back. All we need is some evidence and we can overrule the council's decision to turn Eren over to the MP."

Annie wasn't entirely convinced yet. "What evidence?"

Armin looked at the ground. "I can't tell you."

 _You can't tell me?_ Annie thought, _Or you won't tell me? Does it even exist? Is he lying to me?_

Annie let out a sigh. Eren being turned over to the MP wasn't such a bad thing, after all. She would get to be a lot closer to him, even if he was going to be held a prisoner. She could visit him, and wouldn't have to worry about his safety when he left the walls again. "I can't help you." She said, beginning to turn away. "But good luck."

"Annie, come on!" Armin pleaded, "Eren will be killed!"

The words stopped Annie in her tracks. Kill him? To what end? Surely more was to be gained by keeping him alive, studying him, right? But then again, the top brass, especially in the Military Police, were typically cowardly, weak-willed men who didn't know the first thing about titans, and were fearful to know.

But what if Armin was lying to her, deceiving her? Using her feelings to Eren to get her to comply with whatever this was? It wouldn't be the first time. He had done the same thing outside the walls.

Wait... Could he suspect her?

It was possible. Though weak, Armin was a brilliant boy. If anyone could figure out that she was the female titan, it was him.

"They'll kill him simply because they fear what they don't understand. They can't see that their actions are driving humanity down the path to nonexistence. We might not be able to change their minds, but what if we are? We have to take the chance, right?"

"Why?" Annie asked, doing aself-evaluation. She had never done anything to gain his trust. "Do you really think I'm a good person?"

"I don't really agree with that term." Armin said, "It's just something that people use to describe those who are useful at a certain time, it's completely circumstantial. But if you don't help us, then to us, I guess you'd be a bad person. Right?"

He was manipulating her, Annie knew. Masking it beneath the guise of "for humanity's sake." He was really only appealing to her emotional state, and she could see it clearly. Exploiting her attachment to Eren to nudge her into cooperating was low. Her love was not a tool for somebody else's plan.

 _I should have killed you when I had the chance._

But what if it was true? If there was even the slightest risk that Eren was going to be in danger, that he was going to be killed... Well, Annie had to take chances too.

Annie unslung her rifle from her shoulder and set it against the building. Then, she turned to Armin. "Alright." She said, as reached into her pocket and drew a silver ring. To most, a bland piece of jewelry, but Annie knew its secret. A small folding blade was inside it, which would snap out when Annie moved her wrist a certain way. She slipped the ring on.

If worst came to worst, she'd use it. If not, well, Eren would be safe and no harm would be done. And really, that was all she wanted.


	11. Chapter 11

So I know its been weeks since the last chapter was published. I'm really sorry, you probably all thought I was gonna leave it at ten chapters but nope! CH11 is here. I hope you enjoy it, I also hope I did you guys justice. This is the final chapter in this fic, and part of the reason it took so long is because I wanted to try and get it as perfect as possible. Also, I got super freakin busy. I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Chapter 11:

Eren saw Annie walk down the street with Armin and was both relieved and disappointed. They were actually going to do this. He didn't want to, he still couldn't believe that Annie and the person controlling the female titan were the same person. But Armin and Mikasa had managed to convince the brass to at least take the chance.

"It's okay." Mikasa said. Annie and Armin were still out o earshot. "No matter how this goes, it's going to be okay."

It was a futile attempt to comfort Eren. If anything, it made him feel worse.

"Yeah, you say that, but you'll put a sword in her back the second you suspect her of trying to do anything at all." He muttered, looking away. He knew of the animosity between the two. Their bitter rivalry during training had stemmed into cold resentment of one another. Annie had also told him what Mikasa told her, what she threatened to do if Annie ever hurt Eren.

"I'm just trying to protect you." Mikasa answered.

"Well stop it!" Eren hissed. "I don't need you to protect me."

"Eren, stop." Mikasa said, her voice breaking. "I've lost my family twice before... Don't you think it's only natural that I try to protect what little I have left?"

Eren went silent. She had a point, however shitty her overprotection made him feel. He tried to ignore it as Annie and Armin approached them.

"Hey guys," Armin said lightheartedly, "Annie agreed to help us."

Eren stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Annie. "Hey," he said, "how are you?"

"I'm alright." Annie answered simply, wrapping her own arms around Eren's waist. "What about you?"

"I've been better," Eren said truthfully. He planted a quick kiss on Annie's cheek, and when he stepped away, she was blushing and looking at the ground. Eren realized that it was the first time he had kissed her around other people and he too began to blush. He gave a sheepish smile and brought his hand up to the back of his head. "Sorry." He apologized.

"It's okay." Annie said. "Shall we go off then?"

Eren followed as Annie led the three through a series of streets. He wondered how much longer they had to walk until they reached the underground tunnel. He hadn't bothered to give the map any more than a quick glance. He did, notice, however, that the amount of people nearby was slowly declining, so it was likely that they were approaching the tunnel.

Eren decided to break the silence. "We got through the checkpoint more easily than expected. Military police, just as lazy and slackish as I expected. I'm surprised they even bothered to show up." He joked.

"Eren, stop glancing around so much." Mikasa jabbed. "You'll draw attention to us."

"I hope they don't notice that Jean's taken my place in the carriage," Eren whispered, looking ahead now. "We don't look anything alike."

"It's close enough." Armin said defensively. Eren remembered that the body switch was his idea. "You guys are both angry all the time, and you both have that look of a murderer in your eyes."

"Yeah," Eren retorted, "but he looks like a horse. I don't."

"Hey," Annie said in front of them. "What would you have done if I hadn't decided to help?"

"Oh." Armin said. Eren figured he'd let Armin handle this one, after all Armin was way better at bullshitting his way out of situations like this. "We were going to use our 3DM gear to get over the wall."

"That's stupid. In broad daylight? You'd have the entire MP after you in a matter of seconds."

"Which is why I'm glad you decided to help." Armin said, trying to feign cheerfulness.

"Wouldn't it have made more sense to escape before reaching Stohess?" Annie asked. "Why wait until now to make your move?"

"I thought that the intricate layout of Stohess's streets would make it easier for us to swap out Eren for Jean and give us more time to make use of the switch. Plus, pretending to go along with the MP keeps their guard down, they don't suspect a thing."

"I see." Annie said, but Eren could hear in her voice that she wasn't convinced. "It's a good plan."

Eren again felt guilty for taking part in this. Did she know they were leading her into a trap?

* * *

Annie took note of every detail she noticed. The roads were all cleared, there was nobody outside. Eren, who normally would have walked with her hand-in-hand, walked behind her, which probably meant he was feeling guilty about something. Mikasa seemed to be regarding her even more coldly than usual, and she could hear flecks of panic in Armin's voice. He had probably made it all up on the spot.

Which led Annie to confirm her suspicions. They _were_ trying to deceive her.

How far would she let it go, though?

"Here," Armin said, running to a stairway that descended underground. Annie eyed the darkness with suspicion as Armin continued, "it's the remains of an underground city they planned to build way back when. Supposedly, it leads all the way to the outer gate."

"Alright, let's go." Eren said from behind her, walking past and descending down the staircase.

 _I'm not going to be able to transform down there if I need to,_ Annie thought, _not that I want to anyways._ Annie had a brief flashback to when her father would shut her in the small, cramped broom closet as a punishment when she failed to perform up to his standard. They had led to her having nightmares of being buried alive, which in turn had developed a serious claustrophobia in Annie. She hated being in dark spaces, especially cramped ones.

She stopped walking and watched the three walk down the stairs. Eren turned around to look at her.

"Annie, come on. We don't have time for this."

"I don't want to go." Annie said simply. She realized how much of a child she sounded like, but didn't care. It was a bad idea, on a multitude of levels, for her to follow them.

"Don't tell me you're scared of the dark, Annie."

"So what?" Annie said, growing defensive and beginning to panic. "I don't expect some suicidal bastard like you to understand the fears and feelings of a frail little girl like me."

And indeed, that's what she felt like then. Frail, little. Powerless.

"Annie, you're not frail at all. For god's sake, you threw Reiner over your head! Now quit being stupid and come down here!" Eren seemed to have registered Annie's panic and was herself beginning to freak out.

"Eren, stop yelling." Mikasa scolded. "Someone will hear you."

"Don't worry, Mikasa," Annie said, looking around at the empty marketplace, which looked motionless, abandoned, dead in the lighting. "There hasn't been anyone around for a while, it seems."

She turned back to Armin. "That hurts, Armin. It really hurts. When did you start looking at me like I was some sort of monster?"

"Why," Armin asked, "did you have Marco's gear, Annie? When we had our gear inspected after Hanji's test subjects were killed, why did you show them Marco's gear?"

Annie was surprised that Armin had noticed. "I found it." She said simply.

"You killed them, didn't you? Sawney and Bean, you killed them?" Armin accused.

Annie didn't see a point in lying. It was obvious that Armin suspected her. Instead, she dodged the question and looked at Eren. The look in his eyes... Disbelief? Shock? Disappointment? Whatever it was, it broke her heart. She could feel it inside of her, cracking, feel the pieces chipping and falling away. She couldn't bear it.

Annie turned back to Armin. "If you thought so a month ago, why did you wait until now to say something?"

"Because!" Armin said, "I didn't want to believe I was right. I didn't want to believe that you were working against us! But the fact that you didn't kill me then, back in the field... That's what led us to this moment."

"It is," Annie agreed mindlessly, looking away, "and looking back, I really should have. I didn't expect things to come to this. Why didn't I kill you?"

"Annie!" Eren screamed, shattering Annie's daze. "Please, stop! Come down here with us, please tell me that this is all some sort of joke! Tell me that you're just playing some cruel sick joke on me, and that you're going along with what Armin says for kicks. Please!"

Annie could hear the cracking in Eren's voice. Such distress. Annie felt a guilt. She never wanted to hurt Eren.

"That's enough." Mikasa said ferociously. "I've had just about enough of this. I'll cut you to ribbons again, female titan."

Relief welled up in Annie. She didn't have to hide anything from them. Somehow, for some reason, euphoria washed over Annie. She giggled, and then her giggles grew into laughter. It had been so long since she laughed.

"Oh, Armin. Did you enjoy this?" She taunted. "I hope you enjoyed me being a 'good person.' It seems like you've won your bet. But you're not the only one gambling here!"

Annie brought up her hand. Armin raised his own hand. An acoustic grenade rang out. Movement. Movement all around her. In less than a second, Annie found herself being pinned down by a group of soldiers in civilian clothing. Four? Six?

It didn't really matter, though. Annie still had one more trick up her sleeve. She flicked her wrist out and swiped her thumb down, slashing it across the blade that had protruded from her plain silver ring.

It was the first time she had transformed in front of a group of normal humans. Annie towered over the soldiers. The ones who weren't killed in the transformation process had scattered at the sight of her.

 _I can still accomplish my mission._ Annie thought, _I can still capture Eren._

But where had he gone? Annie couldn't gauge how far into the tunnel they had gone. But she knew how far it was safe to assume they couldn't have run in that time, and slammed her foot down. Her heel crashed through the roof of the tunnel. She stepped over and peered inside. Eren was unharmed. Good.

* * *

Eren's heart and mind were racing as his teeth dug into the flesh of his palm. Eren could feel them scraping against the bone. Why wasn't it working? Emotions were fighting for control within him. Confusion, anger, distress, sadness, hopelessness, and a cacophony of other feelings.

"Eren, think." Mikasa hissed. "You've seen her transform. You know it's her. You _know_ Annie is the female titan. You know you have to fight her. Why can't you bring yourself to fight her? Are your 'special feelings' holding you back?"

 _Of course they are!_ Eren wanted to shout. _How can I bring myself to fight the woman that I love? Even if she is the female titan?_

Armin interrupted. "I have a plan. Mikasa and I will head towards that hole and that hole respectively. With any luck, she'll go after one of us and leave you alone."

"Wait, what?" Eren protested, "You'll be killed!"

"And if we don't, all three of us will be killed." Armin stated.

"Don't do this! Please!" Eren begged as the two ran off.

"We don't have a choice." Mikasa answered, turning back to look at him. "The world is a cruel place."

Eren stood there dumbfounded. A rumbling sounded overhead, and Eren looked up just in time to see the ceiling collapse. Debris cascaded downward, sealing Eren in a tomb.

Eren's mind went foggy. He became aware of the sunlight on the left side of his face and the sound of Armin's voice.

"Eren! Hang in there!" Armin said, struggling to move the rubble off of Eren's back. "Come on, stay with me. Say something, Eren! Get up!"

"What the hell is going on?" Was that... Jean's voice?

"He's trapped! I can't get him out!" Armin explained.

"Why didn't he transform?" Jean asked.

"He couldn't. I think it's because the female titan is Annie. Help me get him out, please!"

Jean's voice grew louder. Had he gotten closer to Eren? "Cut the shit, Yeager! I told you that the day would come when we would all be relying on you, and this is the best you can give us? Is this what they're out there dying for? Is this what Marco... Died for?" Jean's voice cracked.

Another thundering crash, and Jean regained his composure. "I'll deal with Annie." He said, and the 3DM gear's signature noise sounded off.

"Eren," Armin spoke, strangely calmly, "I said this to Jean before... 'To rise above monsters, we must sometimes abandon what makes us human.' Annie can do it... I mean, just look at her. And if you don't do it too, all of this will have been for nothing!"

 _Abandon what makes me human, huh?_ Eren thought, _I can't. I can't do it, and now my friends are all dying because of it!_

As the images of his dead comrades flashed before his eyes again, Eren filled with anger. Too many people have died because of him. His goal changed in his delusional rage. It was no longer "Fight the female titan," it had become "Kill _all_ titans." He noticed the stake of wood speared through his chest and grabbed it, lifting his body around it, scraping his insides with it and causing immense pain.

He transformed.

* * *

I didn't feel like writing out the entire battle sequence. You all can just watch the fight on the internet or something. I'm just skipping to the end of the fight.

* * *

Battered and in pain, Annie lunged at the wall, crystallizing her skin into claws and digging them in. She began to climb, but felt something heavy grab onto her legs. The manic shrieking told her that it was Eren in his titan form. What had gotten into him? Just a little while ago he was unable to transform, and now he was fighting like some kind of savage monster. It was far more animalistic than the first time she saw him in this form.

Annie kicked at him. _I'm sorry, Eren,_ she thought, _I'll come back for you. I promise, I'll come back._

Annie felt her right leg shearing off at the knee, and Eren fell to the floor. She began to climb again. Thirty, twenty, ten meters away from the top of the wall.

Movement in the corner of her eye. A flash of movement. Jet-black hair. Pain across her fingers, and they separated from the rest of her body. Mikasa had come and slashed them off.

As her boyfriend's pseudo-sister landed on her face, she muttered words. It was too quiet for Annie to hear them, but she could read Mikasa's lips. "Fall, Annie." Then she jumped away.

* * *

Eren had made his way back to her body as it crashed to the ground. He straddled her and smashed at her limbs with his fists. Off came her arms, and then... A bright light. Had he severed her titan's head?

Annie could feel the tears rolling down her face. Yes, she was in control of her human body again, her titan form was incapacitated. She looked at Eren, eyes glowing and hair a tangled mess. So full of hate. She couldn't bear it. She shut her eyes and continued to cry.

And then Eren stopped. Had he noticed her tears, her pain? Had he come back to his senses? Did he... Did he still love her?

 _Eren,_ Annie thought. She had an idea. Enough of her body was still encased in the titan for it to work.

She began to crystallize around herself, and willed her titan to fuse with Eren's. If she could crystallize the both of them together...

Eren's screams of protest rang out in her ear like gunshots. _It's okay, Eren..._ She thought, _We don't have to fight anymore. We can live like this, together, forever... We can escape the world, just like you said... No more death, no more pain, no more suffering... We can escape all of it... Please..._

Eren opened his eyes to the city in ruins. Was all of this his fault? How many more people were dead because of him? A giant crystal lay on the ground. A group of soldiers were surrounding it, with one particular soldier stabbing a blade downward, striking the surface o the crystal again and again.

"Eren," Mikasa said to his right.

Eren turned. "Mikasa... is Annie...?"

Mikasa's expression darkened and she cast a glance off a short ways away, back to the crystal.

Was Annie... Encased in it?

"Do you hear me!?" Jean pained. "We went through fucking hell, for this!? Annie! Get your ass up! You owe us answers, you fucking coward! I know you can hear me!"

Levi grabbed his shoulder before Jean could strike the crystal again. Eren wondered why Jean was being this emotional. Normally he was collected and coolheaded. And then he remembered. Annie was wearing a 3DM rig when she trasformed. Which means she was probably wearing the gear still. Was it... Marco's gear...?

"It's over." Levi said calmly.

Jean lowered his arm and stood there, defeated. Broken.

Not far off from how Eren felt. He had nearly killed the only person in the world that made him feel happy, and now she was trapped inside a crystal cocoon, unable to speak to him. Grief and exhaustion took him. He slumped, and fell unconscious.

* * *

Comfort greeted Eren when he woke up. Eren was in a warm bed, with a bandage wrapped around his head. Mikasa sat next to the bed and Jean and Armin stood a little farther off.

"You feel okay?" Mikasa asked.

"Yeah," Eren replied. "Kind of numb to everything, really. But okay for the most part."

Silence. Then, Eren asked, "So is Annie still trapped in the crystal?"

"Yep." Jean answered. "We went through all that trouble, lost all those people, and Annie isn't even conscious to give us the answers we need. A fucking joke if you ask me."

"Eren, why did you let her go?" Armin asked.

Eren didn't have an answer.

"You did let her go, right? You gave her a choice."

Eren turned away from him and looked at the end of the bed. "I did." He muttered. "I didn't think this would happen, I just... I couldn't move when I saw her face... I didn't want to hurt her."

"Armin Arlert, Jean Kirstein, report to HQ for a debrief." A soldier said from the doorway.

"Roger," Armin said, getting up to leave. "Seeya later then, Eren."

* * *

Eren stood in the basement of the Scout's HQ, the same basement he slept in during his first few weeks with as a Scout. It had become a holding cell for Annie's crystal. He looked at her lifeless figure, kept still by the translucent rock encasing her.

"Annie," Eren said, "I hope you can hear me. I..."

The words escaped him. "I still don't quite understand why you did what you did. But... Im sure you had your reasons. Right? You had a good reason?" Eren sighed. "It had to be a really really good one, though, for you to hurt all those people like that... And when you come out of that crystal, I'll still be here, waiting to hear it. Waiting to forgive you."

"I still love you a lot, Annie. I'm going to go on fighting for a better world for us to live in. I promise."

* * *

Thus ends the fanfiction "Annie's Heart." I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :) Also, Ruin Me is likely to have one more chapter as well, so stay tuned!


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